VA ALAA EON. ance RAAAA nanan VAAAAAAAAA ASA Ss Ann tea Pe 3 Py : LP > >>> ee 2 >> > “Dd i> 2 See yi >» SS) Sw 3.55.5 3 a> PL ® I) D>* Py) 5 = 2 < > Mas : mee > ral SAAR ~ a WMAKaas wa hy AM a vie A AARALAAAA WAAAAAAR SAD n Pi us ‘AA AA IDNA Rea ea ; Ps adil THE ZOOLOGIST EOR. 1872. SreconD SERIES, pp. 2877—3340. LONDON: E. NEWMAN, PRINTER, 9, DEVONSHIRE STREET, BISHOPSGATE. THE ZOOLOGIST: A POPULAR MISCELLANY OF NATURAL HISTORY. CONDUCTED BY EDWARD NEWMAN, F.L.S., F.Z.5., MEMB, IMP. L,-C. ACAD, SECOND SERIES._VOLUME THE SEVENTH. Pah COM LENCE MENT.) (Ok THIRTIETH LONDON: JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW. M.DCCC,.LXXII, *“ Gem, flower, and fish, the bird, the brute, Of every kind occult or known, Each exquisitely formed to suit Its humble lot, and that alone, Through ocean, earth and air fulfil, Unconsciously their Maker's will.” “Has Nature in her calm majestic march Faltered with age at last? does the bright sun Grow dim in heaven? or in the far blue arch, Sparkle the crowd of stars when day is done Less brightly ? when the dew-lipped Spring comes on, Breathes she with airs less soft, or scents the sky With flowers less fair than when her reign began ? Does prodigal Autumm to our age deny The plenty that once swelled beneath his sober eye ? “Look on this beautiful world, and read the truth In her fair page: see every season brings New change to her of everlasting youth ; Still the green soil with joyous living things Swarms; the wide air is full of joyous wings; And myriads still are happy in the sleep Of Ocean’s azure gulfs, and where he flings The restless surge. Eternal love doth keep Tn his complacent arms the earth, the air, the deep.” Bryant. CONTENTS. ALPHABETICAL LIST ANDERSON, ANDREW, F.Z.S. Ornithological notes from the North- Western Provinces, India, 3329; Additional notes on Indian croco- diles, 3340 Anaus, W. CRAIBE Ringed plover at a distance from the coast, 2905 Bayuiss, Joun H., jun. Breeding habits of the grasshopper warbler, 3311 Bet, ALwIn 8S. Trunk turtle in Bridlington Bay, 2907 BrEtTHELL, WILLIAM British heronries, 3338 BrrcHati, Epwin Men and beasts, 3005; Are the Chan- nel Islands British? 3304 Buaxr-Knox, H. American cuckoo in Treland, 2943 Burytu, Epwarp, F.LS., F.Z.8. Litter of sixteen puppies, of which one only was a male, 3016; Asiatic rhinoceroses, 3104; Wild Indian elephants in days of yore, 5169; Animals of Orissa, 3172 Bonn, Freperick, F.L.S., F.Z.S. The Whitby wader, 2905 Bowerpank, Dr. J. S., F.R.S., &e. Muller’s top-knot at St. Leonard’s, 2996 Boyes, F. White’s thrush, 2992; Waxwings in East Yorkshire,2993 ; Snipes “ drum- ming” in winter, Bittern in East Yorkshire, 2994; Varieties of the blackbird, 3020; Great gray shrike in East Yorkshire, 3064; Lesser redpoll, 3313 Brewin, RopertT Moles, 3142 Brunton, T. Birds at Glenarm, 3235 Brypces, Sir Harrorp Jonss, Bart. Early arrival of the chiffchaff, 3021 Burton, D. T. Hawks, &c., at Gravesend, 3019 OF CONTRIBUTORS. Carey, C. B. Ornithological notes from Guernsey, 2910, 2990, 3233; Another white- tailed eagle in Guernsey, 2911; Cuckoo near the sea, 2944; Spring arrivals in Guernsey, 3062; Are Guernsey birds British? 3066, 3145 CuHatk, W. J. The fourth edition of “ Yarrell,” 3018 Ciermont, Rt. Hon. Lord Chiffchaff in March, 38020; Blackbilled American cuckoo in Ireland, 3022; Are the Channel Islands British ? 3184 Criirton, Lord Buzzard, peregrine falcon and merlin at Cobham, 2940; White’s thrush, 2942 CLoae, STEPHEN Razorbills, &c., picked up on the coast of Cornwall, 2995; Heronry in Corn- wall, 3316 Corin, G. B. Woodcock breeding in the New Forest, 3260; Otter, 3304; Is the wheatear commoner this season than usual ? 3311; Starlings building in Sep- tember, 3313 COoRDEAUX, JOHN Ornithological Notes from North Lin- colnshire, 2928, 3014, 3095, 3165, 3320; Notes from the Lincolnshire coast and North Sea, 3203 CornisH, THOMAS Silvery hairtail at Penzance, Great abundance of pilchards on the Cornish coast, 2908; Spotted gun- nel and lesser forked-beard near Penzance, 2947 ; Large whiting near Penzance, Silver eel of extraordinary size, 2996; Barnacle attached to a cork, Silvery hairtail in Whitsand Bay, 3027; Occurrence off Penzance of a Syngnathus hitherto unobserved as British, 3274 CoucH, JAMES Foot of the whitetailed eagle, 2911 Vl CONTENTS. Crewe, Rev. H. Harpur, M.A. Description of the larva of Eupithecia pygmeata, 3193; Larva of Hupi- thecia togata, 3276 Cricuton, ARTHUR W., F.L.S. French partridge perching, 2944 Datrry, Rev. THomas W., M.A. Lepidoptera on the Lancashire and Cheshire sand-hills, 3075 DovusLepay, HENRY Ring ouzel at Epping, 2942 Dounnine, J. W., M.A., F.L.S. Great Auk, 2946 Durnrorp, Henry Richardson’s skua, &c., in Norfolk, 2906; A domestic hen living twenty- four days without food, 2944; Birds observed in Liverpool Market, 3018; Birds observed in Liverpool Market during March, 3066; Sanderlings at the mouth of the Mersey, 3149; Squirrel swimming, 3272; Ornitho- logical notes from the neighbour- hood of Southwold, Suffolk, 3307 ; Heronry in Suffolk, 3315; Pecu- liarities of whitefronted goose, Polish swan, Scaup ducks in Sep- tember, Dark variety of Richard- son’s skua, 3339 Frempen, Capt. Henry W. Collared pratincole near Gosport, 2944; Ospreys in Hampshire, 2991; Wood- cocks breeding in Wolmer Forest, Sabine’s snipe in Scotland, 3188 ; The birds of the Feroe Islands, 3210, 3245, 3277; Dartford warbler, 3272 GaTcomBE, JOHN Rare birds at Plymouth, 2940; White- headed longtailed tit in Somerset- shire, 2943; Ornithological notes, chiefly from Devonshire, during the autumn and winter of 1871-72, 2984; Ornithological notes made in the neighbourhood of Plymouth during February, March and April, 3011, 3049, 3099; Birds attacking dragon- flies, 3018; Ornithological notes made in Devon and Cornwall during May, June, July and August, 3136, 3166, 38258; Bogue off Plymouth, 3189; Blackfish on the coast of Cornwall, 3236; Tunny at Ply- mouth, 3276 Grips, T. H. Ornithological notes from Northum- berland for 1871, 3008 Gray, Dr. J. E., F.B.S., &e. The seals (Phocide) that permanently reside in or occasionally visit the British Islands, 3333 Gunn, T. E. Marsh harrier in Norfolk, Great gray shrike near Yarmouth, White va- riety of song thrush, Varieties of the blackbird, 3323; Hawfinches in Suffolk, White sparrow near Nor- wich, Piebald redlegged partridge, 3324 Gurney, J. H. White’s thrush, 2912, 3020; Missel thrush and White's thrush, 2940; Variety of the rock pipit, 2943; Pomarine skuas in Torbay, 2946, 2995; Gregarious roosting of the South-African colies, 2993; Ornitho- logical occurrences in the neigh- bourhood of Torquay during the spring of 1872, 3134; Honey buz- zard in the New Forest, Kestrel, sparrowhawk and cuckoo, 3146; Anecdote of a rat, 8181; Notes on the heronries of Norfolk and Suffolk, 3314 Gurney, J. H., jun. Snowy owl at Southrepps, in Norfolk, 2912; Redlegged partridge nesting in a tree, 2944; Birds attracted by lighthouses, 2990, 3144; Clustering of the longtailed tit, 2993; Cuckoo near the sea, 3022; Purple heron, squacco heron and night heron in Norfolk, Plumage of the white- fronted goose, 3023; Variety of the missel thrush, 8044; Great auk on Diseo, 3064; Whimbrel near Strat- ford and dunlin near Leamington, 3273; Sabine’s gull at Bridlington, 3316 HADFIELD, Capt. Henny Common tern, 2906; Arrival of spring migrants, 3062; Baillon’s crake, 3272; Golden eagle in the Isle of Wight, 3309 Harrine, J. E., F.L.S., F.Z.S. British heronries, 8261; Supposed oceurrence of Wilson’s snipe in Cornwall, 3273 Hewirson, W. C., F.L.S. Dormouse, 2908; Early nesting of the kingfisher, 3022 Hornpy, Hueu P. Tufted ducks near Garstang in July, Redbreasted goose, 3236 Horne, C. (the late) Deaths from wild beasts and snake- bites in India, 2908; Trogs and spiders, 2995 HvuceEt, Baron A. von Golden orioles in confinement, 2942 ; Hoopoe in Hampshire, 3112; Red- pole breeding in Lancashire, 3147 ; Gullbilled tern in Hampshire, 3149; Ornithological notes from Lanea- shire, 3228; Woodcock breeding in the New Forest, 3256 CONTENTS. Vil Kemrp-Wetcgu, E. B. Coluber austriacus, 3150; Capture of Coronella levis at Pokesdown, Hants, 3276 Kerr, W. J. Ornithological notes from North Wales, 3144 Kynepon, Boveuton, M.R.C.S. Birds in aviaries, 3237 LatHam, ArTHuR G. Diseased partridges, 3314 Leacu, Henry Ropert White’s thrush, 3111; The Jandrail, 3112; Snow bunting, 3313 ; Sander- ling and cockle, 3314 Lewis, W. A., F.L.S. New names for European butterflies, 3074 Martuew, Grervase F., F.L.S. Ornithological notes from Devonshire, &c., 2917; Greenshanks, &c., near Newton, 2945; Sturgeon in the Tor- ridge, 3114 MatuHew, Rey. Murray A., M.A. English Ornithology of 1871, 2908; Great black woodpecker near Ox- ford, 2913; Curious habit of the longtailed titmouse, 2943; Ornith- ology of Dartmoor, 3017; Early arrival of the chifichaff, 3063; Ring ouzel in Devon, 3311; Landrail taking to water, 3316 Morcou, G. F. Great auk, 3338 Morg, A. G., M.A., F.L.S. Early arrival of the chiffchaft, 3021; Food-plant of Tzniocampa rubri- cosa, 8027 Newman, Epwarp, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. - Great black woodpecker, 3021; A cuttle-fish at the Crystal Palace aquarium, 3037; Arrival of a Su- matran rhinoceros in the Zoological Gardens, 3057; The female rhino- ceros — successful removal of her horn, 3061; Memoirs of my bird cage, 3157; Wild-fowl Protection Bill, 3183; The barramunda, a new ganoid fish from Queensland, 3188 ; Zoology of the Royal Academy, 3197; Another rhinoceros at the Zoological Gardens, 3232; Death of the Chinese stag at the Zoological Gardens, 3233; Vanessa Antiopa, 3236; Are Guertisey birds British? 8324 NicHotson, FRANcIS Lesser redpoll and twite, 3235 Prnny, Rey. C. W., M.A. Ten female puppies ' 2990 Pickarp-CaMBRIDGE, Rey. O., M.A. Snipe “drumming” on the 2nd of February, 2993; Are Guernsey in a_ litter, birds British? 3109, 3183; Coluber austriacus in Dorsetshire, 3113 Porr, Grorce H. Collections of eggs, 3146; Dark- coloured eggs of the goldcrest, 3147 Porritt, G. T. Redpoll breeding at Huddersfield, 3235 Ports, T. H. Notes on the birds of New Zealand, 3052, 3089 Rake, B. N. Starling’s nest built on a pigeon’s, 3112 Reexks, Henry, F.L.S., F.Z.S. The common mole, 3181; Egg collec- tions, 3184; Bird-friends of the farmer, 3294 Rickarps, Marcus S. C., F.L.S. Scent of wood sandpiper, Spotted crake near Clifton, 2945; White- tailed eagle in Gloucestershire, 2991; Mortality amongst razorbills, 3023 RoBerts, G. The common mole, 3182 Rocks, JouHn Tengmalm’s owl, roughlegged and common buzzards and dotterel in Shropshire, 3111 Ropp, Epwarp Hrarte Arrival of the blackcap, 3063; Arrival of swallows, 3064; Glaucous and Iceland gulls in Mount’s Bay, 3065 ; Wilson’s snipe in Cornwall, 3149; The common mole, 3182; Gull- billed tern at St. Just, near Pen- zance, 3188; Montagu’s harrier, 3272 Ropp, E. H., and the late W. Yarrein The British skuas (Lestris), 2933 Ropp, F. R. The Scilly Isles—Migratory birds— Notes on shooting, &c., during the autumn and winter of 1870-71, 2858; The common mole, 3182 Rogers, H. Razorbills, guillemots, &c., picked up in the Isle of Wight, 2994 Satvin, F. H. White badger, 3180 ScLaTER, JoHN Description of a White’s thrush ob- tained in Castle Eden Dene, 3041; Seal in the Dene, 3143; White’s thrush, 3148, 3186; Concerning squirrels, rats, kestrels, sparrow- hawks, &e., 3298; Cuckoo’s stomach, 3314 Simpson, Martin Shore. lark and Whitby, 3021 Sues, A. H. Singular mark on the head of a tame wood crested tit near vill CONTENTS. swan, 3112; Spring arrivals at Car- shalton, 3145; Blackheaded gulls in Oxfordshire, 3316 SmitrH, Ceci Hen harrier, Norfolk plover and red- breasted merganser in Somerset- shire, 2911; A few ornithological notes from Guernsey, 2921; White’s thrush, 2941; Early arrival of the chiffchaff, 3064; Notes on the breeding in confinement of the pochard, pinkfooted goose and wigeon, 3243 SouTHWELL, THOMAS The otter, 3016 STEVENS, SAMUEL, F.L.S. Spotted redshank near Arundel, 3316 Stevenson, H., and J. H. Gurney, jun. Ornithological notes from Norfolk, 2977, 3045, 3102, 3132, 3225, 3317 Tuck, J. G. Richardson’s skua at Rye, 2907; Spring arrivals at Bury, 3062; Redshank recorded as blackwinged stilt, 8064 ; Birds in Smithfield and Leadenhall Markets, 8065; Honey buzzard in Suffolk, 3185; Golden oriole in Cambridgeshire, 3257; Birds ob- served at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, in the summer of 1872, 3306 WaALkeER, FRANCIS Early occurrence of Ophion obscurus, 3076 WALKER, Rev. F. A., M.A. Notes on the Gouliot caves in the Island of Sark, 2988 Wayne, W. H. Spotted flycatcher, 3233; Swallow and martin, or chimney swallow and eave swallow, 3234 WHITAKER, J., jun. Quails breeding in Nottinghamshire, 2913; Rare birds in Nottingham- shire, 2939; Variety of the waterhen, 2940; Spotted crake near Notting- ham, 2946; Abnormal colouring in birds, 2991; Abundance of short- eared owls in Nottinghamshire, 2993; Virginian colin in Notting- hamshire, 2994; Waxwings in Not- tinghamshire, 3021; Spring arrivals in Nottinghamshire, 3062; Ducks in Nottingham Market, 3066; A visit to the Freshwater Cliffs, 3109; Arrival of spring birds, 3111, 3145; Hawfinch eating the kernels of cherry-stones, 3186; Swallows roost- ing on rushes, White swallow, Quails in Nottinghamshire, 3314; Little bittern in Nottinghamshire, 3316 CONTENTS. 1x ALPHABETICAL LIST OF SUBJECTS. Adjutants, death of in a cyclone, 3185 ARgialites fluviatilis, 3246 hiaticula, 3245 Alauda arvensis, 3217 Alca impennis, 3280 — torda, id. Ampelis garrulus, 3216 Anarhynchus frontalis, 3052 Anas acuta, 3253 — boschas, id. Anecdote of a rat, 3181 Animals of Orissa, 3172 Anser albifrons, 3252 — ferus, id. Anthus obscurus, 3217 pratensis, id. Arctica alle, 3279 Ardea cinerea, 3247 Arrivals, spring, in Guernsey, 3062; in Nottinghamshire, id.; at Bury, id.; at | Carshalton, 3145 Auk, ‘great, 2946, 3280, 8338; on Disco, 3064 — little, 3279; in summer plumage, 3228 Badger, white, 3180 Barnacle attached to a cork, 3027 Barramunda, a new ganoid fish from Queensland, 3188 Bernicla brenta, 3253 canadensis, id. leucopsis, id. Bird cage, memoirs of my, 3157 Bird-friends of the farmer, 3294 * Bird-Life,’ 2997 ‘Birds of the West of Scotland, including the Outer Hebrides,’ 2957 Birds, migratory, 2898; rare, in Not- tinghamshire, 2939; rare, at Plymouth, 2940; nocturnal flight of, 2978; at- tracted by lighthouses, 2990, 3144; abnormal colouring in, 2991; observed in Liverpool Market, 3018, 3066; attacking dragonflies, 3018; of New Zealand, 3052, 3089; in Smithfield and Leadenhall Markets, 3065; Guernsey, are they British? 3066, 3109, 3145, 3183, 3324; spring, arrival of, 3111, 8145; of the Feroe Islands, 3210, 8245, 3277; at Glenarm, 3235; in aviaries, 3237; observed at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, in the summer of 1872, 3206 Birds’, wild, Protection Act, 3230 Bittern, 2940, 2983, 2994, 3010 little, 3008, 3247, 3316 Blackbird, 3050, 8215; varieties of the, 3020, 3323 Blackeap, 3098; arrival of, 3063 Blackfish on the coast of Cornwall, 3236 Bogue off Plymouth, 3189 Botaurus minutus, 3247 Brambling, 3103, 3218, 3296 Bree, C. R., M.D., F.Z.S., ‘An Exposi- tion of Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin,’ 3175 Brehm, Dr. A. E., ‘ Bird-Life,’ 2997 Budgerigar, 3238 Budytes flava, 3217 Buller, Walter Lawry, F.L.S., &e., ‘A History of the Birds of New Zealand,’ 3077 Bullfinch, melanism of, 2982 Bunting, blackheaded, 3166, 3168 snow, 2929, 3015, 3217, 3313 Butterflies, Ray’s arrangement of, 2882; Haworth’s arrangement, 2884; Dr, Leach’s system, 2885; Latreille’s, 2886; Herrich-Scheeffer’s arrangement, 2887 ; Edward Newman’s arrangement, 2889; in which the pup are enclosed in a silken cocoon like those of moths, 2890; Mr. Kirby’s arrangement, 2891; European, new names for, 3074 Buzzard, 2922, 2940, 3012, 3051, 3111, 3167 —— honey, in the New Forest, 3146; in Suffolk, 3185 —— roughlegged, 2989, 3111 Calidris arenaria, 3246 Callocephalus vitulinus, 3333 Calopsitta Nove-Hollandie, 3240 Caprimulgus Europeus, 3224 Chafiinch, 3218, 3296 Channel Islands, are they British? 3184, 3304, 3324 Charadrius pluvialis, 3245 Chiffchaff in March, 3020; early arrival of, 8021, 3063, 3064; arrival of, 3052 Chlorospiza chloris, 3219 Chough, Cornish, 3099 Chroicocephalus ridibundus, 3287 Cinclus aquaticus, 3215 Circus eruginosus, 3214 Clangula glaucion, 3256 Cockateels, 3240 Colies, South-African, gregarious roost- ing of, 2993 Colin, Virginian, in Nottinghamshire, 2940, 2994. Coluber Austriacus in Dorsetshire, 3313 ; at Bournemouth, 3150 Columba livia, 3224 palumbus, id. Colymbus arcticus, 3256 glacialis, id. septentrionalis, id. b x ; CONTENTS. Coot, 2983, 3252 Cormorant, 2986, 3050, 3092, 3137, 3208, 3285 Coronella levis at Pokesdown, Hants, 3276 Corvus corax, 3220 cornix, 3221 corone, id. frugilegus, 3222 monedula, id. Coturnix vulgaris, 3225 Crake, Baillon’s, 3272 corn, 3252 spotted, near Clifton, 245; near Nottingham, 2946 Cramer's Works, the date of, 2953 Crane, 3247 Creeper, 3297 tree, 3225 Crossbill, common, 3219 Crocodiles, Indian, additional notes on, 3340 Crow, carrion, 3102, 3207, 3221 gray, 2978 —— hooded, 2932, 3048, 3096, 3133, , 3221 Crows, carrion, dispersion of a rookery by, 3021; death of in a cyclone, 3185 Cuckoo, 3223, 3297; near the sea, 2944, 3022 — American, in Ireland, 2943 blackbilled American, in Ireland, 3022 Cuckoo’s stomach, 3314 Cuculus canorus, 3223 Curlew, 3095, 3205, 3248, 3297, 3320 stone, 3297 Cuttle-fish at the Crystal Palace Aqua- rium, 3037 Cygnus musicus, 3253 Cypselus apus, 3224 Cystophora cristata, 3334, 3338 Dipper, blackbreasted, 3103 Dippers, 3136, 3215 ‘Discussion of the Law of Priority in Entomological Nomenclature,’ 3125 ‘Diurnal Lepidoptera, a Synonymie List of, 2877 Diver, blackthroated, 3256 great northern, 2925, 2983, 8256 — northern, 285, 3011 — redthroated, 2925, 2986, 3256 Divers, cry of, 2987 Dormouse, 2908 Dotterel in Shropshire, 3111 Dove, ring, 3013, 3137, 3224 — rock, 3224 turtle, 3224 Doves, Australian crested, 3241 ring, following the plough, 3138 Duck, eider, 3254 — king, 3255 Duck, longtailed, 3010, 3255 scaup, 2932, 3255 — _ shoyeller, 3133 — tutted, 3010; near Garstang, in July, 3236 wild, 3253; variety, 2932 Ducks, catching with nets in Ireland, 3052; in Nottingham Market, 3066 scaup, in September, 3339 Dunlin, 3208, 3250 Dunning, J. W., M.A., F.LS., ‘On the Genus Acentropus,’ 3117 Eagle, golden, in the Isle of Wight, 3309 — Imperial, voracity of, 3331 whitetailed, in. Guernsey, 2911, 2922; foot of, 2911; in Gloucester- shire, 2991; in the Feroe Islands, 3213 ’ Eel, silver, of extraordinary size, 2996 Eggs, collections of, 3146, 3184; dark- coloured, of golderest, 3147 Elephants, wild Indian, in days of yore, 3169 Entomological Society, proceedings of, 2914, 2949, 3028, 3067, 3114, 3150, 3194 Erythaca rubecula, 3215 Euphema pulchella, 3240 Eupithecia pygmeata, description of the larva of, 3193 ——— togata, description of the larva of, 3276 ‘Exposition of Fallacies in the Hypo- thesis of Mr. Darwin,’ 3175 Falco wsalon, 3213 islandus, id. —— peregrinus, 3213 — tinnunculus, 3214 Falcon, Iceland, 3213 peregrine, 2940, 3009, 3046, 3099, 3228, 3137, 3213, 3258 Fieldfare, 2922, 2931, 3015, 3215 Fish, supposed hermaphrodite, 2947 Flycatcher, pied, 3103, 3132, 3214, 3225 ——__ spotted, 3138, 3229, 3233, 3258, 3297 er Rac lesser, near Penzance, 47 Fowl and pheasant, hybrid between, 3227 Fratercula arctica, 3279 Freshwater Cliffs, a visit to the, 3109 Fringilla celebs, 3218 — linaria, 3219 montifringilla, id. serinus, id. Frogs and spiders, 2995 Fulica atra, 3252 Fuligula marila, 3255 Fulmarus glacialis, 3292 Gallinago media, 3249 CONTENTS. x1 Gallinula chloropus, 3252 Gannet, 2986, 3013, 3226, 3285 Garganey, 3099, 3133, 3254 Geese, wild, 2931; diving, 2984 Godwit, blacktailed, 3249 Goldcrest, 83297; dark-coloured eggs of, 3147 Goldeneye, 3256 Goldfinch, 3296 Goosander, 2925, 3010, 3256 Goose, bean, 2983 bernicle, 2984, 3253 brent, 3253 Canada, id. graylag, 3252 pinkfooted, breeding in confine- ment, 3243 redbreasted, 3236 whitefronted, 3252; plumage of, 3023; peculiarities of, 3339 Gouliot caves in the Island of Sark, 2988 Graculus carbo, 3285 eristatus, id. Grallatores, 3245 Gray, Robert, ‘ Birds of the West of Scot- land, including the Outer Hebrides,’ 2957 Grebe, 2925 great crested, 3046, 3134 little, 3256 Sclavonian, id. Greenfinch, 3219 ‘ Greenshanks, &e., near Newton, 2945 Grouse, Pallas’s sand, in Scotland, 3196; in the Feroe Islands, 3224 Grus cinerea, 3247 Guillemot, 2985, 3205, 3227, 3277 black, 3278 bridled, 3045 ——— _ ringed, 3277 Guillemots, &c., picked up in the Isle of Wight, 2994 Gull, blackheaded, 2986, 3134, 3287 brownheaded, 3166, 3207 common, 3289 cuneate-tailed, 3287 glaucous, 3051, 3289 great blackbacked, 3011, 3289 herring, 3289 Iceland, 3011, 3097, 3258, 3289 ivory, 3288 lesser blackbacked, 3051, 3100, 3101, 3138, 3167, 3289 : — Sabine’s, 3287; at Bridlington,'3316 Gulls, 3015, 3049, 3136, 3209 — blackheaded, in Oxfordshire, 3316 glaucous and Iceland in Mount’s Bay, 3065 Gulls, herring, 3137, 3167; following the plough, 3138 Gunnel, spotted, near Penzance, 2947 TTT TTT Hematopus ostralegus, 3246 Hairtail, silvery, at Penzance, 2908; in, Whitsand Bay, 3027 Haliaétus albicilla, 3213 Halicherus grypus, 3333, 3336 ‘Handbook of British Birds; showing the Distribution of the Resident and Migratory Species in the British Islands,’ 3826 Harelda glacialis, 3255 Harrier, hen, 2911, 2982 marsh, 3214, 3323 Montagu’s, 2984, 3100, 3272 Harting, James Edmund, F.L.S., F.Z.S., ‘The Ornithology of Shakespeare, critically Examined, Explained and Illustrated,’ 2935; ‘Hints on Shore Shooting; with a Chapter on Skinning and Preserving Birds, 2972; ‘A Hand- book of British Birds,’ 3326 Hawfinch, 3132; eating the kernels of cherry-stones, 3186 Hawfinches in Suffolk, 3324 Hawks, &c., at Gravesend, 3019 Hedgesparrow, 3297 Hen, domestic, living twenty-four days without food, 2944. Heron, 3225, 3247 night, 3023, 3248 purple, 2982, 3023 squacco, 2924, 3023 Heronries, British, 8260, 3338; of Nor- folk and Suffolk, 3314 Heronry in Suffolk, 3315; in Cornwall, 3316 Herons, 3049, 3137, 3258 Herrings and mackerel in Brighton aquarium, 3339 ‘ Hints on Shore Shooting,’ 2972 Hippopotamus, birth and death of a young, at the Zoological Gardens, 2948; birth of a young, at the Zoolo- gical Gardens, 3332 Hirundo rustica, 3223 ‘History of the Birds of New Zealand’, 3077 Hooper, 3253 Hoopoe in Devonshire, 3112; in Hamp- shire, id. Insessores, 3214 Jackdaw, 3222 Jynx torquilla, id. Kestrel, 3049, 3146, 3214, 3296 Kestrels, 3298 Kingfisher, 3258; early nesting of, 3022 Kirby, W. F., ‘A Synonymic List of Diurnal Lepidoptera,’ 2877 Kites, death of in a cyclone, 3185 Kittiwake, 2986, 3015, 3045, 3204, 3287 Knot, 3015, 3207, 3250 xii Landrail, 3112, 3497; taking to water, 3316 Lapwing, 3246, 3317 Lark, shore, near Whitby, 3021 sky, 3217 wood, 3051 Larks, sky, breeding in an aviary, 3186 Larus argentatus, 3289 canus, id. fuscus, id. glaucus, id. islandicus, id. marinus, id. Larva of Eupithecia pygmeata, descrip- tion of, 3193; of Eupithecia togata, description of, 3276 Lepidoptera, Gmelin’s, 2951; on the Lancashire and Cheshire sand-hills, 3075 Lewis, W. Arnold, F.L.S., ‘A Discussion of the Law of Priority in Entomo- logical Nomenclature,’ 3125 Lighthouse, Cromer, 3047, 3104, 3134, 8319 Limosa egocephala, 3249 Linnet, brown, 3296 Lissapterus Howittanus, 2950 Loxia curvirostra, 3219 Mackerel and herrings in Brighton aquarium, 3339 Mareca penelope, 3254 Martin, 2984 house, 3165; and swallow, 3284 Melopsittacus undulatus, 3238 Men and beasts, 3005 Mentone, le troglodyte de, 3179 Merganser, 3256 redbreasted, 2911, 2925 Mergus castor, 3256 serrator, id. Merlin, 2940, 3213 Migrants, spring, arrival of, 3062, 3102 Moles, 3148, 3181, 3182 Moorhen, 3252 Motacilla alba, 3216 Muscicapa atricapilla, 3214 Natatores, 3277 Nests, 3103 Nightingale, 3134, 3225 Nightjar, 3167, 3224, 3228, 3258, 3297 Notes on shooting, &c., 2898; on the Gouliot cayes in the Island of Sark, 2988; on the birds of New Zealand, 3052, 3089; from the Lincolnshire coast and North Sea, 8203; on the breeding in confinement of the po- chard, pinkfooted goose and wigeon, 3243; on the heronries of Norfolk and. Suffolk, 3314 Numenius arquata, 3248 pheopus, id. CONTENTS. Nuthatch, 3297 Nyctea scandiaca, 3214 Nycticorax griseus, 3248 Ocydromus australis, 3089 Ocyphaps lophotes, 3241 Gidemia fusca, 3255 nigra, id. perspicillata, id. ‘On the Genus Acentropus,’ 3117 Ophion obscurus, early occurrence of, 3076 Oriole, golden, in Cambridgeshire, 3257 Orioles, golden, in confinement, 2942 Ornithological notes from Guernsey, 2940, 2921, 2990, 3165, 3233; from Devonshire, &c., 2917, 2984; from North Lincolnshire, 2928, 8014, 3095, 3320; from Norfolk, 2977, 3045, 3102, 3132, 3225, 3317; from Northumber- land, 3008; made in the neighbour- hood of Plymouth, 3011, 3049, 3099; made in Devon and Cornwall, 3186, 3166, 3258; from North Wales, 3144; from Lancashire, 3228; from the neighbourhood of Southwold, Suffolk, 3307; from the North-Western Pro- vinces, India, 3329 Ornithological occurrences in the neigh- bourhood of Torquay during the spring of 1872, 3134 Ornithology, English, of 1871, 2908; of Shakespeare, 2935; of Dartmoor, 3017 Ortygometra erex, 3252 } Osprey, 3213 Ospreys in Hampshire, 2991 Ostrich-farming in South Africa, 3205 Otter, 3016, 3304 Otus brachyotus, 3214 vulgaris, id. Ouzel, ring, 2922, 2942, 3136, 3168, 3311 water, 3049, 3258 Owl, fern, 3165 longeared, 3045, 3214 —— shorteared, 2930, 3016, 3214 snowy, at Southrepps, in Norfolk, 2912 —— tawny, 3214 Tengmalm’s, in Shropshire, 3111 Owls, 3295 — shorteared, abundance of in Not- tinghamshire, 2992 Oystercatcher, 3205, 3246 Pagomys feetidus, 3333, 3335 Pagophila eburnea, 3288 Pagophilus grenlandicus, 3333, 3336 Pandion haliaétus, 3213 Papilio Hyale, 2953 Parrakeet, Pennant’s, nesting of in con- finement, 3187 Partridge, 3297, 3319; and pheasant laying in the same nest, 3138 CONTENTS. Partridge, French, 3045; perching, 2944 redlegged, nesting in a tree, 2944; piebald, 3324 Partridges, diseased, 3314 Passer montanus, 3218 Pastor, rosecoloured, 3220 Peacocks, length of life of, 3324 Peewit, 2923, 3166, 3229, 3296 Petrel, forktailed, 3294 fulmar, 3292 stormy, 3294 Phalarope, 2984 —_ rednecked, 3251 Phalaropus hyperboreus, 3251 Pheasant and partridge laying in the same nest, 8138; and fowl, hybrid be- tween, 3227 Phocide, 3333 Phyllopneuste trochilus, 3216 Picus major, 3222 Pike, large, 3190 Pilchards, great abundance of on the Cornish coast, 2908 Pintail, 3253 Pipit, meadow, 3217 — rock, 3217; variety of, 2943 Plectrophanes nivalis, 3217 Plover, crookbilled, 3052 golden, 2923, 2931, 3051, 3096, 3245, 3297 gray, 3010 little ringed, 3246 Norfolk, 2911, 2923 ringed, 3208, 3245; breeding at a distance from the coast, 2905 Pochard, breeding in confinement of the, 3243 “Paget's,” 2980 Podiceps minor, 3256 nigricollis, id. Pratincole, collared, near Gosport, 2944 Pratincula rubetra, 3215 Procellaria Leachii, 3294 ——___ pelagica, id. Puffin, 3167, 3279 Puffinus anglorum, 3293 major, 3294 Puppies, ten female in a litter, 2990; litter of sixteen, of which one only was a male, 3016 Quail, 3010, 3225, 3297 Quails breeding in Nottinghamshire, 2913; in Nottinghamshire, 3314 Querquedula circia, 3254 ———_——_ crecca, id. Rail, spotted, 3047, 3103 — water, 2924, 3252, 3322 Raptores, 3213 Rat, anecdote of a, 3181 Rats, 3298 Rattlesnake, use of the rattle of, 3190 Xiil Raven, 3009, 3050, 3099, 3137, 3220, 3258 Razorbill, 2985, 3012, 8049, 3280 Razorbills, picked up in the Isle of Wight, 2994; on the coast of Cornwall, 2995 ; mortality amongst, 3023, 3024, 3025 Redpoll, lesser, 3132, 3226, 3296, 3313; breeding in Lancashire, 3147 ; breeding at Huddersfield, 3235; and twite, 3235 mealy, 3219 Redshank, 2932, 8015, 8248; recorded as blackwinged stilt, 3064 ——— _ spotted, near Arundel, 3316 Redstart, black, 8050, 3051, 3182, 3215, 3229 ——— Tithys, 2922 Redwing, 2922, 2930, 2988, 3215, 3296 Regulus cristatus, 3216 - ignicapillus, id. Rhinoceros, Sumatran, arrival of in the Zoological Gardens, 3057; the female —successful removal of her horn, 3061; another at the Zoological Gardens, 3232 Rhinoceroses, Asiatic, 3104 Rhodostethia Rossi, 3287 Rissa tridactyla, id. Robin, 2984, 3215, 3297 Rook, 3049, 3096, 3132, 3222 Ruticilla tithys, 3215 Ruff, 2924 Salmon, fine, 3190 Sanderling, 8246; and cockle, 3314 Sanderlings at the mouth of the Mersey, 3149 Sandpiper, common, 3227, 3229, 3318 green, 3015, 3318 purple, 2979, 2984, 3009, 3250 wood, scent of, 2954 Saxicola cenanthe, 3215 Scilly Isles—migratory birds—notes on shooting, &c., 2898 Scolopax rusticola, 3249 Seoter, common, 2924, 3204, 8255 surf, 3255 velvet, 3009, 8255 Seal in the Dene, 3143; on the Lincoln- shire coast, 3203 common, 3333 gray, 3336 —— harp, 3333, 3336 — hooded, 3334, 3338 large gray, 3333, 3336 marbled, 3333, 3335 Seals that permanently reside in or occasionally visit the British Islands, 3333 Sepia officinalis, 3037 Shag, 2985, 8285 great, 3092 Shearwater, great, 3294 ———— Manx, 3293 Shooting, notes on, 2898 Xiv CONTENTS. Shrike, great gray, in East Yorkshire, 3064; near Yarmouth, 3323 Siskin, 3296 Siskins breeding in confinement, 3187 Skua, common, 3226, 3290 longtailed, 3292 — pomatorhine, id. — Richardson’s, 2906, 2907, 2978, 3010, 3292; dark variety of, 3339 Skuas, the British, 2533 pomarine, in Torbay, 2946, 2995 Snake-bites and wild beasts in India, deaths from, 2908 Snipe, 2924; “drumming” on the 2nd of February, 2993; ‘ drumming” in winter, 2994 common, 3249 great, 3317 jack, 2924 Sabine’s, in Scotland, 3188 Wilson’s, in Cornwall, 3149, 3273 Somateria mollissima, 3254 spectabilis, 8255 Sparrow, tree, 2931, 3015, 3098, 8218 white, 3324 Sparrowhawk, 3146 ; on board ship, id. Sparrowhawks, 3298 Sphinges of Fabricius, 2951 Spiders and frogs, 2995 Spoonbill, 2978, 3209 Squirrel swimming, 3272 Squirrels, 3298 Stag, Chinese, death of at the Zoological Gardens, 3233 Starling, 2923, 2983, 3137, 3219, 3295 Starling’s nest built on a wood pigeon’s, $112 Starlings building in September, 3313 Stercorarius catarractes, 3290 ceppus, 3292 parasiticus, id. pomarhinus, id. Sterna hirundo, 3286 Stilt, blackwinged, redshank recorded as, 3064 Stint, little, 2924 Stonechat, 3298 Strepsilas interpres, 3246 Strix aluco, 3214 Sturgeon in the Torridge, 3114 Sturnus vulgaris, 3219 Swallow and martin, 3234 Swallow, 3223; white, 3314 chimney, 3096, 3321; and eave, 3234 Swallows, arrival of, 3064; roosting on rushes, 3314 Swan, hooper, 2932 . Polish, 3339 — tame, singular mark on the head of a, 3112 Swift, 3137, 3224, 3258 — alpine, 3319 naan Syngnathus off Penzance, hitherto un- observed as British, 3274 Syrrhaptes paradoxus, 3224 Teniocampa rubricosa, food-plant of, 3027 Teal, 2924, 3254 Tern, arctic, 3286 common, 2906, 2925, 3226 —— gullbilled, in Hampshire, 3149; near Penzance, 3188 lesser, 3208, 3225, 3318 Terns, arctic and common, 3206 , Thrush, 2930 missel, 2940, 3102, 3132; va- riety of, 3044 song, 3229, 8296; white variety of, 3323 White's, 2912, 2940, 2941, 2942, 2978, 2992, 3019, 3020, 3111, 3148, 3186; description of, obtained in Castle Eden Dene, 3041 Titmice, 3014 Titmouse, cole, 3297 crested, near Whitby, 3021 longtailed, 3297 ; curious habit of, 2943; clustering of, 2993; white- headed, in Somersetshire, 2943 ———. marsh, 3297 Tits, bearded, 2983 Top-knot, Muller’s, at St. Leonard’s, 2996 Totanus calidris, 3248 Tringa alpina, 3250 Canutus, id. maritima, id. Troglodytes borealis, 3222 Tunny at Plymouth, 3276 Turdi, 2979 Turdus iliacus, 3215 merula, id. pilaris, id. Turnstone, 3246 Turquoisines, 3240 Turtle, trunk, in Bridlington Bay, 2907 Turtur auritus, 3224 Twite, 2930 Uria grylle, 3278 ringvia, 3277 — troile, id. Vanellus cristatus, 3246 Vanessa Antiopa, 3236 Varieties of the blackbird, 3020, 3823 Variety of wild duck, 2932; of waterhen, 2940; of rock pipit, 2943; of bull- finch, 2982; of missel thrush, 3044; of tern, 8091; of swallow, 3314; of lapwing, 3317; of French partridge, 8320; of song thrush, 3323; of spar- row, 3324; of redlegged partridge, id.; of Richardson’s skua, 3339 CONTENTS. XV Vulture, whitebacked, nesting of, 3329 Wader, Whitby, 2905 Waders, spring, 3133 Wastail, grayheaded, 3217 pied, 3048, 3132 white, 3216 yellow, or Ray’s, 3166 Wastails, 3049, 3296 Warbler, Dartford, 3272 grasshopper, breeding habits of, 3311 reed, 3225 sedge, 3228 willow, 3216, 3228 Waterhen, variety of, 2940; eggs of, 8133 Waxwing, 3216; Bohemian, 3010 Waxwings in East Yorkshire, 2993; in Nottinghamshire, 3021 Weka, 3089 Wheatear, 3096, 3215, 83298; is it com- moner than usual this season? 3311 Whimbrel, 3165, 3205, 3248, 3273 Whinchat, 3136, 3215, 3298 Whiting, large, near Penzance, 2996 Wigeon, 3254; breeding in confinement of the, 3248 Wild beasts and snake-bites in India, deaths from, 2908 Wild Birds’ Protection Act, 3230 Wild-fowl, 3048; during the breeding season, a bill for the protection of, 3139; protection bill, 3183 Woodcock, 2924, 3046, 3133, 3227, 3249, 3318; breeding in the New Forest, 8236, 3260 Woodcocks nesting, 3103; breeding in Wolmer Forest, 3188 Wood-hen, 3089 Woodpecker, great black, near Oxford, 2913, 3021 ————_ ereat spotted, 3222, 3258 ——_—— green, 3100, 3133 Woodpeckers, 3297 Wren, common, 3226, 3297 firecrested, 3216 — goldencrested, id. — northern, 3222 Wryneck, 3222, 3227 Xema Sabini, 3287 “Yarrell,” the fourth edition of, 3018 Zoology of the Royal Academy, 3197 arate ie, ty wart - ¥ 7 E - 10,788 Total - - = - 180,440” But in spite of this tremendous slaughter, Mr. Gray reports that there is no diminution in the number of the birds. The murdered pigeons are replaced by migratory flocks from Norway, Denmark and Sweden, which settle in the country, and do not return again to the homes they had left. Mr. Gray himself witnessed an arrival of an immense flock of wood pigeons on the coast near Dunbar: “T had gone out about daybreak, and was astonished to see a prodigious cloud of pigeons fully a mile seawards, steering for the nearest land. The entire body of birds alighted on the sandy beach at Catcrag Bay, which they completely covered between the rocks near the limestone quarry and the opposite point in the direction of the town. I am satisfied there must have 2960 Tak Zootocist—Marcu, 1872. been in the flock twenty or thirty thousand pigeons, at the lowest computa- tion; and, from the fact of their alighting immediately on reaching land, without any preliminary survey of the ground, I concluded they had come in from along journey. Their tameness on my approach confirmed this conjecture, as I was allowed to put them up within twelve or fifteen yards. The cloud slowly ascended, and a line was formed, six or eight birds deep, which gradually drew off the main body, forming a singular spectacle when viewed against the morning sky, and almost realizing the descriptions of Wilson and Audubon, when writing of the passenger pigeon of North America, and its ‘ five-mile’ processions in the air.” Such an arrival as is here described portended woe to the lowland farmers, whose crops of every kind would have to pay toll. « As an example of the bird’s extraordinary voracity, Lord Haddington has forwarded to me, in separate cases, the contents of the crops of four wood pigeons opened at different times: the first contains 144 field peas and seven large beans; the second 231 beech-nuts; the third 813 grains of barley ; and the fourth 874 grains of oats and 55 of barley. Such damage may be better estimated from the fact that the bird is known to feed three times daily, each meal probably involving the consumption of an equal quantity of grain by a single bird. In a grain-producing district, therefore, where from 15,000 to 29,000 pigeons have been destroyed within twelve months, without effecting any apparent decrease in their numbers, the loss to agriculturists must be enormous.” No doubt this increase of a mischievous bird is due to several causes, but the chief of these may be justly regarded to be the greater adaptation of the country to their habits afforded by the high farming of modern times, and the destruction of all kinds of hawks which would have kept the pigeons under. We pass on now to other birds, which are noticed in an interesting manner in Mr. Gray’s volume. He has but a low opinion of the Corvide. The greatest thief of the whole family would seem to be the hooded crow, which interbreeds very com- monly with the carrion crow, many cases having come under Mr. Gray’s notice. Here is one:— “Tn a glen near the banks of Loch Lomond a female hooded crow had her nest, and had commenced laying. Her first mate was a carrion crow, and after the keeper shot him the hen bird went away, and returned with a second bird, also black. He, too, was killed a day or two afterwards, but the dauntless widow got another black mate within a few hours, and thus Tur ZooLtocist—Marcg, 1872. 2961 allured a third crow to his doom, for it is needless to say that the watchful keeper was only too glad of the opportunity of shooting the rascal. At length the sitting bird having laid the full complement of eggs, remained at home and brought up her young ones till they could be conveniently killed, after which she herself fell a victim. The keeper, in telling me this episode of crow life, said he was almost sorry when on picking her up he found she had only one leg, the other having apparently been taken off in a trap a considerable time before.” Respecting the mischief perpetrated by the hooded crow in the Hebrides, Mr. Gray writes :— “On the western side of the Long Island, where farming is extensively practised, they are particularly mischievous, their plundering raids among lambs and poultry being distinguished by an amount of wariness and cunning which makes their unwelcome presence a subject of constant annoyance. Away from the coast their perpetual thefts are not less felt. In spring and summer, during the time of breeding, no bird is safe against their attacks—a momentary exposure of the nest and eggs being too great a temptation to the feathered vagabonds. Even the golden and sea eagles frequently lose their eggs by these crows.” The habit of the oystercatcher of ascending the course of rivers and passing the summer far inland is noticed by Mr. Gray. We can ourselves remember our surprise, some few years since, at seeing oystercatchers in a meadow not far from Blair Athole, in company with starlings and jackdaws, the time of the year being the beginning of August. Some of those observed by Mr. Gray were seen near the same spot. It is worth while to quote Mr. Gray’s remarks upon the subject. “The oystercatcher pairs early in the season, and in some parts of Scotland is known to travel long distances inland. When travelling from Perth to Inverness in April, 1870, I observed several pairs on the banks of the Tay evidently mated. Near Dalguise, I saw others frequenting ploughed fields at some distance from the river; and at Ballinluig two or three pairs were observed near a farm steadily feeding not more than twenty yards from the pigeons and poultry. On reaching Pitlochry, I found five or six pairs, all apparently mated; and: finally, as we passed Blair Athole and proceeded northwards towards Struan, I counted about a dozen more, showing that these birds follow the windings of such a river as the Tay, and take up their summer quarters on its banks at the commencement of the breeding season. About a week afterwards, while travelling along the side of the Spey from Rothes to Abernethy, I took notice of the fact that 2962 Tue Zootocist—Marcu, 1872. pairs of this bird were located in the same way on the banks of the river from the Moray Firth to the confines of Invernesshire, where they would almost meet those coming from the Firth of Tay. In like manner these birds ascend the Findhorn as far as its source in the Monadhliadh Moun- tains, and also penetrate to Lochness and Loch Oich, where they are met by others which have entered by the South at Loch Linnhe. The same remark applies to the whole of the western coasts, where the many streams and sea-lochs that characterize that side of Scotland attract the oystercatcher and other birds of like habits, and lead them gradually inland, so that during the breeding season they turn up before the tourist almost everywhere.” One of the things which astonishes an observer of birds from the South who visits Scotland is the extraordinary number of peewits. The moors, the pastures, the shores of the great tidal rivers, are frequented by thousands; everywhere in Scotland the peewit is to be seen flying with ils characteristic and uncertain wheelings in the air,.and its cry is one of the most familiar sounds which strikes the ear. In Scotland there is a prejudice against the peewit. Itis litle regarded as an article of food, and in many parts it bears an ill name because, by its restless flight and loud cries, it is said to have often betrayed little gatherings of Covenanters, when met out on the bleak moor, to the troopers who were in search of them. The writer of this notice was once looked upon with much wonder by the head keeper on a grouse moor where he was shooting because he wasted a cartridge upon one of these birds, and it took all his powers of persuasion to induce his friend to consent to its being cooked and set upon table. However, when tasted it was candidly admitted that the peewit was not to be despised. “Tn the wildest tracts of moorland the lapwing is often found breeding at a considerable distance from any homestead or shieling, away in the barren wastes abandoned to Highland sheep and black game. There, in the bare patches that meet the eye,—green spots in the midst of the brown and flowerless heath,—small companies congregate and occupy their encamp- ments with watchful care. At this season the vigilant creatures are easily alarmed, and become restless and clamorous on the appearance of any object, whether man or dog, keeping up a constant and wailing outery so long as the cause of their disturbance remains in sight. In some parts of the South of Scotland the lapwing is on this account looked upon with great dislike, the behaviour of one of these colonies calling to memory the betrayal of persecuted Covenanters, whose movemeuts on the hill-side were in con- stant danger of detection by their enemies being so guided to their place of THE ZooLoGist—MaRkcH, 1872. 2963 concealment. The following original lines, taken from the ‘ poet’s corner’ of a country newspaper, though somewhat invective in their style, fairly express the feeling still prevalent in the minds of some of the shep- herds and others now living near the scenes of by-gone persecution and bloodshed :— “To THE PEESWEEP. “ Thou idle, ill-conditioned bird, At sight of men most strangely stirr’d! Was ever passion as absurd Yet hatch’d in breast ? Can body g’ye a pleasant word ? Thou waur than beast! “* What though ye’re ruff’d wi’ bonny black, Wi glancing gray out owre your back, And wame and wings soft linings tak’ The hues 0’ snaw,— Your idle, endless, senseless clack, Just mars it a’. «’Tween herds and you there’s deadly feud ; He breaks your eggs and skails your brood, And—waur than grudging ye a rood O’ skrunty heather— He’d pook ye bare, fra’ tail to hood, To the last feather. “ He minds what Scotland greets for yet, When helpless Hill Folk, hard beset, Could naewhere but in muirlands get A night’s safe quarters,— Ye brocht the troopers on them het, And made them martyrs. «© sorra on your wicked din, And shame on a’ your kith and kin! And though there’s naething ‘neath the skin That’s fit for pot, Wad ony body ca’t a sin To wuss ye shot?” In common with most other observers of birds who have had opportunities of examining many specimens of the dunlin, Mr. Gray has been puzzled by the great variation in size to which that species is subjected. The ordinary wild-fow] shooters around our coasts are well acquainted with the fact that there are larger and smaller dunlins. A boatman we have often employed cuts the difficulty by declaring that the smaller birds with short bills and a 2964 THE ZooLocist—Marcn, 1872. ruddier plumage are “summer larks,” and are only seen during the summer months, whereas the larger birds with bills long and often curved as much as the bill of the curlew sandpiper are autumn arrivals. Our own observation tends in a great way to confirm this distribution of the two races of dunlins which apparently are to be found on our coasts into summer and winter birds. We have noticed large flocks of the smaller and brighter birds in the beginning of May, when they are so tame that they will almost suffer themselves to be trodden upon, in this tameness seeming to show that they have but just arrived, and have observed them all to be short-billed dunlins, with the ruddier tints upon the back and the smaller band of black on the under parts, which are the marks of the smaller race. We have never seen a short-billed dunlin among birds shot in winter, and have remarked then that all were long-billed. But we will quote what Mr. Gray has written upon the subject :— “The variations to which this species is subject appear to be much greater than those occurring in any other wading bird of its size. It would almost seem as if there were several races to be found throughout Scotland. In some districts of the Outer Hebrides, for example, the dunlin is smaller than that of the mainland—a remark which applies to the entire bird, and not to any particular feature. The bill is at least one-half shorter; the tarsi and toes more slender and diminutive; the dorsal plumage redder and more streaked; and the black abdominal patch not so large. When com- paring extreme specimens from this part of Scotland and the eastern counties—that is to say, taking the smallest from the West and the largest from the East, the Hebridean bird may safely be said to be not much over half the weight of the other. Some of the dunlins on the western mainland have the bill considerably depressed towards the base; indeed, in a few specimens which I have handled, this feature was so marked as almost to justify a novice in mistaking them for the broadbilled sandpiper. I have also obtained véry characteristic examples of this smaller race, with very short and straight bills, in some of the inner islands. In 1870 I had several specimens in full breeding dress from Gigha and Tyree. This tendency in the dunlin to excessive variation has long been noticed, and has been referred to by various British and Continental ornithologists. Sir William Jardine appears to have met with a breed frequenting some of the lochs in Sutherlandshire, which presented marked differences in size and coloration from the ordinary type; and Macgillivray makes the remark, that ‘the birds that visit the eastern coasts of Scotland seem in general much larger.’ To this I may add, that during many years’ careful THE ZooLoGisT—MaArcH, 1872. 2965 examination of the species in the county of Kast Lothian, it was remarked by Mr. Sinclair and myself, that the greater number of dunlins shot by us were birds fully as large as the curlew sandpiper, and had bills of equal length and curvature.” This variation of the dunlin is in our mind a conspicuous instance of a fact which obtains with respect to most birds, viz. that there is a larger and a smaller race of the same species. It used to be well known to the old falconers that certain breeding-stations were famous for larger and more powerful falcons than others, and a cast of hawks from any eyrie of repute could always command a high price. We have ourselves seen hobbies and merlins which differed remarkably in size, and this difference was not one which was due to age or sex. Sportsmen are well acquainted with larger and smaller races of partridges. It is not long since a smaller race of Charadrius hiaticula has been observed on our coast, and speci- mens of this smaller plover have sometimes been regarded as the continental C. minor. : Mr. Gray furnishes us with a charming picture of the rednecked phalarope as observed by him at one of its breeding-stations in the Outer Hebrides. He says that the birds on their arrival in the summer at once take up their quarters on the small lakes,— “Where they may be seen swimming on the calm surface, and moving in circles with great elegance. Any one who chooses to wade near enough, and make up his mind to stand knee-deep in very cold water, may sketch the beautiful creatures as they paddle about like so many miniature ducks, and write down a pleasant chapter on their habits in his note-book. They seem to have no fear, but come right forward as if curious to know what the intruder is about, uttering all the time a feeble note with every motion of their head, not unlike the ticking of a clock. The little half-clad boys of Benbecula, who of late years have heard of the esteem in which their familiar visitor is held, often attempt to catch the phalaropes by wading through their haunts; and the sight of half-a-dozen such young rascals in full pursuit, and getting soused occasionally, through a false step in the eagerness of their clutch, is very diverting.” We might reasonably expect that a history of the birds frequenting such a country as Scotland would be rich in the information it gives us of the various Anatide which are to be found in its salt and fresh-water lochs, its firths, and on the rough tides which sweep round the thousand islands of its western coasts. SECOND SERIES—VOL. VII. N 2966 THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1872. Nor are we disappointed by Mr. Gray’s pages. We have only space to epilomise the more interesting facts which are to be gleaned from them. We learn that the graylag goose is the only wild goose which at the present time breeds within the limits of the British Islands. This fine bird “Ts now almost wholly confined during the breeding-season to some of the bleakest bird-nurseries of the Outer Hebrides. There it leads a com- paratively quiet life, being but seldom molested, save at the season when the slender crops are being gathered, and even then the native farmers prefer the practice of driving it off by lighting fires, to the extreme measure of powder and shot. For the last hundred years, indeed, the flocks of wild geese that collect about that season—and a very important one it is to these isolated husbandmen—have been kept at bay by fires alone. As soon as the breeding-season is over the geese gather into large flocks, and are then very destructive to farm produce of all kinds; indeed, it requires the utmost watchfulness on the part of the crofters to keep them in check. Several fires are made in the fields, and kept burning night and day; by this means the crops are to a great extent saved, but the moment any of the fires are allowed to fail, the geese, which are continually shifting about on wing, suddenly pitch on the unprotected spot, and often do much mischief before they are discovered.” It occasionally happens that in the wild districts of the North- Western Islands the ornithologist who has been adventurous enough to penetrate them is favoured by spectacles which are calculated at once to astonish and delight him. Speaking of the hooper, Mr. Gray has recorded that on Loch Bee, in South Uist, which is never known to be frozen over, this is an especially numerous species in severe weather, as many as four hundred having been seen there in one flock. And again, the great northern diver (which has not been known to nest in the Hebrides) is occasionally seen in considerable numbers upon its return from its breeding-haunts in August. “ They return some time in August, and are seen in groups of fifteen to twenty birds, swimming near the shore immediately on their arrival. I observed a gathering of this kind on the west side of Benbecula on the 29th of August, 1867, and was told by a friend residing there that he had seen them fully a fortnight before. All the birds were in brilliant summer plumage, and, as a group, formed a spectacle which is not often looked upon by even the most fortunate ornithologist.” THE ZooLocGist—Manrcu, 1872. 2967 The commonest of all the wild geese of the West of Scotland is the bernicle, which is especially abundant in the Outer Hebrides. Mr. Gray relates the following singular habit of this species :— “Previous to leaving, the bernicle geese assemble in immense flocks on the open sands, at low tide, in the Sounds of Benbecula and South Uist; and as soon as one detachment is on the wing it is seen to be guided by a leader, who points the way with a strong flight northwards, maintaining a noisy bearing until he gets the flock into the right course. After an hour’s interval, he is seen returning with noisy gabble, alone, southwards to the main body and taking off another detachment as before, until the whole are gone.” The longtailed duck appears to be a most amusing bird: Mr. Gray complains that ornithologists have not done justice to it. The species is by no means so rare as it has been commonly represented. In the winter season it is a very common bird among the Hebrides, and small flocks regularly frequent the whole of the eastern and western sea-bords of Scotland. The longtailed duck delights in wild and stormy weather. “No creature,” writes a correspondent to Mr. Gray, “revels more amidst the gloom and rage and horrors of winter than the ice duck. The cry of this bird is very remarkable, and has obtained for it the Gaelic name of Lach Bhinn, or the musical duck, which is most appropriate, for when the voices of a number are heard in concert, rising and falling, borne along upon the breeze between the rollings of the surf, the effect is musical, wild, and startling. The united cry of a large flock sounds very like bagpipes at a distance, but the note of a single bird when heard very near is certainly not so agreeable. On one occasion I took great pains to learn the note, and the following words are the nearest approach that can be given of it in writing: it articulates them very distinctly, though im a musical bugle-like tone ;— ‘Our, 0, u, ah! cur, 0, u, ah!’ Sometimes the note seems to break down in the middle, and the bird gets no further than owr, or ower, which it runs over several times, but then, as with an effort, the whole cry is completed loud and clear, and repeated several times, as if in triumph. At this time they were busily feeding, diving in very deep water on a sand bottom, and calling to one another when they rose to the surface. * * * * They are of a very lively and restless disposition, continually rising on the wing, flying round and round in circles, chasing one another, hurrying along the surface, half flying, half swimming, and accompanying all these gambols with their curious cries. When the storms are at their loudest, and the wayes running mountains high, then their glee seems to reach its highest 2968 THE Zootocist—Marcu, 1872. pitch, and they appear thoroughly to enjoy the confusion. When watching them on one of these occasions, I had to take shelter under a rock from a dreadful blast, accompanied by very heavy snow, which in a moment blotted out the whole Jandscape; everything was enveloped in a shroud of mist and driving sleet, but from the midst of the intense gloom there arose the triumphant song of these wild creatures rising above the uproar of the elements; and when the mist lifted, I beheld the whole flock careering about the bay as if mad with delight.” The above graphic description was written from Iona, a residence which during a winter storm must be wild indeed. Scotland, with its numerous lochs, affords attractions to grebes. We learn from Mr. Gray that, arranged in their order of rarity, the species known to the British list would stand as follows :— Eared Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Rednecked Grebe, Sclavonian Grebe, Little Grebe, the species heading the column being most seldom seen. Writing of the Sclavonian grebe Mr. Gray says that— “The habits of this lively species may be best studied in spring, just about the time when it collects in pairs before migrating. In many of our western sea-lochs it is very conspicuous at this season, and on calm evenings, when the water is motionless and burnished by the slanting sunlight, delighting the eye with a series of coloured cloud-pictures as the daylight recedes, the ear at once catches the comical call-notes of these interesting birds holding their Punch-and-Judy conferences. Far off, at almost a mile’s distance, the little specks may be distinctly traced on the unruffled loch, shifting in circles and chasing each other, accompanying all their gambols with their shrill intercourse about their future movements.” This species has not yet been detected nesting in Scotland. The redthroated diver is the commonest of all the divers in Western — Scotland, and breeds on most of the lochs. “On the Hebridean lakes the redthroated diver is extremely suspicious and vigilant, never allowing a very near approach unless the eggs have been for some time sat upon, when the female, and even the male, who is her constant attendant, remains at hand, swimming anxiously within gun-shot, and betraying the utmost concern for the safety of their treasure. Should the eggs be taken, the poor creatures seem to feel the deprivation with Tue. Zootoctst—Marcu, 1872. 2969 unusual keenness, and give expression to their grief—for sorrow I really believe it to be—in loud lamentations. These cries are so full of melancholy meaning, when heard echoing in the midst of the rock-bound lakes of that barren district, that few persons hearing them once would ever desire their repetition. Many of the natives, indeed, would never think of robbing the birds, on that account alone. I once asked a man living near their haunts on Loch-an-Astrom to get me the contents of a nest on the point of a small islet, where I had watched the birds for some days. ‘Ah, maister,’ said he, ‘IT could soon do that, but I don’t like to hear the birds cry... When I afterwards saw the proud parents giving their two little black downy things their first swimming lesson at early dawn, I could not help thinking that the loch looked much fairer on account of their presence, and that it would have been almost a shame to have invested such a scene with the story of even a bird’s despairing cries.” At page 440 Mr, Gray describes a great epidemic which attacked many species of sea-fowl in September, 1859. “The razorbill perished in extraordinary numbers, being found in the proportion of ten to one of the other species.” These were the puffin, guillemot, and common gull: the shores were strewn with their dead bodies. It is supposed this great mortality was due to starvation, as “may be proved from.the fact of hundreds—even thousands—resorting to estuaries, heedless of danger and contrary to their usual shyness. The tes**aaany of the fishermen at various places showed that the common dog-fish was unusually abundant, while the small herring-fry and other fishes constituting the food of sea-birds had entirely disappeared.” This mortality among sea- fowl was widely extended at the time, for in the ‘ Zoologist’ for that date at page 6762, is an account of dead and dying razorbills and guillemots having been seen strewing the coasts of North Devon, and we remember to have read in the papers of the day of vast numbers of dead birds having been noticed, by sailors, floating on the waters of the Irish Channel. Mr. Gray’s book contains an able and interesting account of the history of the great auk as a Scottish bird. We have also a good description of the gannet, which may well be regarded as a charac- teristic bird of the Scotch avifauna, from the fact that the Bass Rock and Ailsa Crag, its most favourite stations, are both situated in Scottish waters. It is impossible to describe either the numbers of the gannet which are to be seen at either of these celebrated rocks, or the extreme beauty of the bird as it hovers just above 2970 Tue ZooLocist—Marcu, 1872. your head in all the richness of its 'summer’s plumage, should curiosity induce you to approach its abode. We recollect that one day during a sail round the Bass Rock the gannets flew around and over us in such multitudes that the thought{struck us how easily the birds might have swamped our boat had they settled upon it. We cannot resist presenting our readers with two amusing extracts from what Mr. Gray has written about the gannet. In former days the gannets which nested upon the top of the Bass were so tame “ As to allow a person to walk among them and lift and examine both young birds and eggs without much remonstrance, a sight which well repaid the trouble of along journey. In 1859, before they finally quitted the spot,* I visited the rock, and found their habits considerably changed. The old birds were dreadfully vociferous, and in some cases showed fight. Professor Macgillivray well described their cry in comparing the torrent of crackling sounds to the words varroch, varroch, kirra, kirra, cree, cree, krak, krak—an address which they utter with great rapidity; but ultimately, finding that it makes no impression, they change it to a loud call for grog. While standing surrounded by an excited multitude of open bills I noticed my guide, one of the Cantabay boatmen, apparently absorbed in thought, ‘Ts there any risk of them biting?’ I ventured to inquire. ‘Oh, no, sir!’ he rejoined, ‘I was only thinking how like they are to owrsels.’” Our other extract on the subject of the gannet is connected with its character as a pet. “TJ have at various times had solan geese in my keeping as pets, but I am sorry I cannot say much in their favour. The last lot I had—about half a dozen—behaved very badly. They kept up an incessant clamour for fish, quantities of which they ravenously, and I may say thanklessly, devoured ; for I no sooner presented myself within the enclosure where they were confined than I was furiously met by the whole gang, launching their wedge-shaped bills wherever they could effectively strike a blow, and uttering all the while the most discordant cries it was possible for birds to give vent to. With such experience, it would be folly to recommend the gannet as a proper subject for the aviary: it does not requite one for his trouble; and, besides, it is not the most gentle occupation of a morning to be visiting one’s pets armed with a*cudgel.” * Not the rock itself, but the grassy slopes upon its summit, where the birds used to nest freely until they were so much disturbed and persecuted by visitors as to be driven to confine themselves to the precipitous ledges of the cliffs. EE a Tae ZooLocist—Marcu, 1872. 2971 We dare make but one more extract from Mr. Gray's pleasant book, as the space for our review is necessarily limited, and this shall be an entertaining one respecting the sagacity of the arctic tern. This bird has often been noticed to wait for carriages driven across the sands to a ford. It has discovered that the wheels are of great service in assisting it to a dinner. “At the next ford a similar scene was repeated by another group of arctic terns, which we found there waiting the arrival of some friendly travellers. In both these cases the birds showed no fear, but dexterously caught their prey, though repeatedly struck at with the whip. Twice over, by stretching out my arm, I nearly caught one of them as it poised itself for a plunge. On making particular inquiry, I was told by many of the inhabitants of both islands that this habit of the tern is a constant enter- tainment to those who cross the fords in wheeled conveyances. The pressure of the wheels must bring the burrowing sand-eels momentarily to the surface, and the quick eye of the tern at once enables the bird to transfix them on the spot.” In concluding our extracts from Mr. Gray’s book, we think it fitting to remark that the whole volume abounds with such pictures from the life as the foregoing. There are also some charming word-paintings of the wild scenery amid which Mr. Gray has so well studied the habits of birds, which well bring back, to the eyes of those who have in time past visited it, all its sublime and rugged beauty. The beautiful Loch Lomond; the rough and precipitous coasts of Skye and Mull; the wild Isle of Iona; ** And Ulva dark and Colonsay, And all the group of islets gay That guard famed Staffa round.” We have looked upon them again with delight as we have read Mr. Gray’s vivid descriptions of their “ misty hills” and “ mountain shores.” Mr. Gray’s pages record the occurrence in Scotland of many species which are not recorded in such works as Yarrell; indeed, we are struck by the number of North American birds which have come under his observation. We have no doubt most of these find their way to the British Islands vié Greenland. The American goshawk, the American whitewinged crossbill, the ruby-crowned wren, the whitethroated sparrow, the green-rump tatler (Totanus chloropygius), the bluewinged teal, and other North American birds 2972 THE Zootocist— Marcu, 1872. have been noticed by Mr. Gray. Of other rare stragglers from North America which have had for some time a place in our list of British birds, it is enough to say that, while Mr. Gray, from his own knowledge, is unable to add any recent examples of the pine gros- beak, he has recorded two undoubted specimens of the spotted sandpiper, which were shot in 1867 in Aberdeenshire. These were a male and a female, the former being now in Mr. Gray’s own possession. We were somewhat disappointed to find no notice of the greater shearwater (Puffinus major) in Mr. Gray’s book. This bird might well be expected to have a station somewhere on the north-west coast of Scotland. Some years ago we were told by Mr. Dunn, of Stromness, of a fishing-smack being attacked by a flock of greater shearwaters, which attempted to carry off the fish on board, and were with difficulty beaten off by the sailors after many had been killed. It is thus evident that the species frequents these northern seas, and we hoped to have heard of it from Mr. Gray. It is not a little singular that this shearwater, which used to be not uncommon off the coasts of Cornwall and South Devon,* is now seldom, if ever, seen in those districts. It may be that Puffinus major keeps far out to sea, and rarely approaches land, except at the nesting-season, or to roost on some rocky islets where it has escaped detection. In taking leave of Mr. Gray’s book, there only remains for us to add that it is well printed and well got up, and that the illustrations, which are lithographs, are very fairly executed. Morray A. MATHEW. Bishop’s Lydeard, January, 1872. Hints on Shore Shooting; with a Chapter on Skinning and Preserving Birds. By James Epmcnp Hartine, F.LS., F.Z.S. London: Van Voorst. 88 pp. demy 12mo. My friend Mr. Harting has done himself an injustice by the publication of this little book. Those who have read his masterly contributions to the ‘ Zoologist” and ‘ Field’ could never suppose Mr. Harting a disciple or compeer of Nathaniel Winkle, so happy in having a biographer whose matchless pen has conferred im- mortality on that illustrious professor of the noble art of venerie in * Our authority is Mr. Gould, in his magnificent work on British Birds. THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1872. 2973 all its branches. Yet Mr. Harting has chosen to appear in the character of a Winkle in this his ‘ Hints on Shore Shooting:’ to begin with the beginning, let me take an inventory of the impedi- menta, as Mr. Harting gracefully and classically calls them, essential to the success of a shore shooter. Here it is:-— A couple of old shooting suits. A pair of waterproof boots. A pair of lace-up boots. Gaiters. A change of linen proportionate to our length of stay. A few pairs of warm woollen socks. An ordinary 12-bore breech-loader, with three sizes of shot in the cartridges. A waterproof cartridge-bag. A pocket-flask. Sherry, quantity not mentioned. A bottle or two of the best pale brandy. A couple of pounds of tea. A tongue, brawn, or what not, until such time as we can stock the larder ourself with the produce of our gun. A sharp knife. A pair of scissors (nail-scissors are best). A supply of cotton-wool. A cauister of plaster of Paris. A tin of arsenical paste. A brush to use it. Needles. Thread. A wooden knitting-needle. Sandwiches. A good spy-glass. Newspaper. By an unlucky oversight my friend has omitted to mention the means of transport: without instructions on this head these impedimenta could scarcely be removed from the railway station to the “muds” of the “Sussex harbours.” But should an aspirant to a ten-shilling gun-licence ever peruse Mr. Harting’s instructions, and absolutely reach the desired haven, then his only alternative will be to set up a co-operative store, and pitch his tent in the SECOND SERIES—VOL. VII. ) 2974 Tue ZooLocist—Marcu, 1872. “drains” or on the “muds” until he has disposed of his wares at a “ruinous sacrifice.” I observe that Mr. Harting airily “hints” to his readers the desirability of taking a punt: he does not actually recommend this: he only coyly and incidentally mentions it, thus—_ “We do not here dilate upon the most desirable form of punt, because unless you take your own you must be content with what you can get.” This is incontrovertible; but I recommend the reader who takes Mr. Harting’s “hints” not to hesitate about carrying his own punt, and inverting over the ¢mpedimenta as soon as they are safely deposited on the “muds.” I will not dwell on Mr. Harting’s instructions to “ hold straight” (p. 10); “to rest our left arm and head on the fore deck” (p. 12); to keep our “ gun pointing a-head in front of us” (p. 12); to get “ our pipe well filled and lit”: I only mention these things en passant, just as I may point to the wooden and Winklean sea, the wooden and Winklean birds, and wooden and Winklean figure of himself, his shooting coat, cap, trowsers, stockings and boots, as proofs of my assertion that Mr. Harting has not done himself justice. And yet, and yet, there is a possibility that the mention of these trifles may possess another teaching. The amusing American traveller who took such pains to describe the silver fork which he observed at every Britisher’s table, as “ four-pronged,” “ flattened,” “spoonlike,” “ugly,” “ use- less,” “senseless”—this pleasantly satirical and most instructive writer has revealed to us a fact of which we had previously no conception, namely, that he himself was unfamiliar with the implement he so graphically describes as highly objectionable: I cannot doubt its existence in the U.S., but I infer that it had not reached the table of our instructor or the tables of those with whom he interchanged the amenities of social intercourse. Possibly Mr. Harting’s very minute instructions about “ holding straight,” “pointing your gun forward in front of you,” &c., &c., may lead to an inference that he would by no means desire to convey. But I must not take leave of Mr. Harting with this superficial and one-sided view of his labours; he has good sterling metal in him, as the following quotations will abundantly prove: in his own subject, Ornithology, he stands his ground well and firmly—I gladly take off my hat to him, and sit attentive as at the feet of a Gamaliel: it is only on the “muds,” hampered by the impedimenta, with his head on the fore deck of his punt, and his gun pointing forward in front of him, that I should religiously Tae ZooLocist—Marcu, 1872. 2975 eschew his companionship. Self-preservation is the first law of human nature. I turn to the before-breakfast hour :— * Hvery naturalist discovers, sooner or later, that one hour abroad before breakfast is worth half a dozen afterwards. All nature is then seen to per- fection ; flowers which close their tender petals at noon are found at morn in all their beauty, on each expanded leaf a glistening drop; the birds, which are silent throughout the heat of the day, pour forth at early light their loudest melodies ; the wild-fowl are busy feeding on the ooze, and the various species of shore birds, profiting by the first ebb-tide, are running here and there over the glistening sands, gleaning hastily the harvest of the sea.”— BS27. “Every naturalist” knows how true is this. My next quotation exhibits the author lying in a punt in a drain in one of the Sussex harbours: we wish he had not chosen Sussex harbours for the theatre of his labours. “On one occasion we were lying in a punt in a ‘drain’ (as the small channels in the Sussex harbours are called), a little below a point where another ‘drain’ intersected it almost at right angles. In the latter we had marked down two curlews when several hundred yards off, and observed that they were feeding towards the junction of the two ‘drains.’ It is always a piece of luck if birds feed towards you after you have got as near to them as you can without alarming them. And this was the case in the present instance. The curlews waded up the side of the drain, which was much shallower than the one we were lying in, and in about ten minutes one of them stepped out upon the flat within twenty yards of the punt, and for a moment seemed perfectly scared. We at once cocked the gun and sat up; with a weird scream the bird took wing, and in another second fell dead upon the mud. His companion, rising out of the drain some yards further off, was only winged, and led us a rare chase over the ooze before he was secured. ‘This incident shows that the curlew depends for safety upon his keen sight, and not upon his power of scent; otherwise the bird in question would never have walked within a few yards of the punt, which he could not see until he had stepped upon the bank.”—P. 49. I entirely agree in the opinion that the curlew depends for safety on his sight, not on his scent: the inquiry whether this is so with birds generally, and whether we can extend it to the search for food as well as for safety, can scarcely be rendered inviting, unless by the talent of a Waterton; but it seems rather illogical to doubt the powers of an eye and an ear so perfect as they are in birds, and to assign their functions to the nose, as some naturalists 2976 Tue ZooLtocist—Marcs, 1872. have done. It seems only necessary to look into the eye of a pigeon to be assured that that organ alone serves to guide him through “realms of air,” and teaches him to recognise each object in his passage; but there is another question about the pigeon which has hitherto scarcely been discussed with that sobriety, that sincere love of truth which it merits: how does the young pigeon, taken for its first flight a distance of ten miles from its home in Spitalfields in a closed cage and a covered luggage-van—how, by what sense or instinct, does that pigeon find its way across country it has never seen, nor heard, nor smelled, being deprived of all accepted means of recognition, eyes, ears and nose? how is it such a pigeon will circle once or twice or three times, wide and wider and widest, and then go off in a direct line, and fly with unfailing certainty to its birth-place in that peristeronic metropolis? That subject must be deferred for the present. “ About the end of July, or beginning of August, great numbers of shore birds come into our harbours, and find their way from the mouths of the rivers to a considerable distance inland. Gray plovers, godwits, knots, whimbrel, greenshanks, redshanks, dunlin, and many other ‘ waders,’ con- tinue to arrive until the end of August, and the shores and mudflats, which were so deserted during the summer while the birds were away nesting, now present a most animated appearance. Flocks of various species, and of various sizes and colours, from the tiny brown stint (Tinga minuta) to the great gray heron, are scattered over the ground in all directions; now feeding busily as they follow the receding tide, now flying with noisy call to some more attractive spot. As we look down upon them from the sea-wall, they appear to be all much of the same colour, and are difficult to distinguish upon the brown mud over which they are running. See them in the air, with upturned wings, and what a different appearance they present. As the sun strikes upon the pure white of the under parts, borne swiftly onwards by rapid wings, the eye is almost dazzled at the bright contrast. Individuals are soon lost to sight as they fly closer together, and the entire flock, gradually lengthening out, sweep across the harbour like a long wave, now light, now dark, as the under or upper portions of the plumage are presented to view. Naturalists who visit the sea-side at the period of migration to which we have alluded cannot fail to admire the wonderful and graceful evolutions which these birds perform upon the wing; whilst those who reside upon the coast throughout the year must hail with satisfaction the arrival of these feathered strangers, whose presence adds so much to the beauty of the scenery, and relieves, to such an extent, the monotony of sea and sky.”"—P. 46. Tue Zoo.octst— Marcu, 1872. 2977 A word as to Chapter V., intituled “ Distinguishing Characters of Shore Birds.” This little chapter, only fifteen pages, is worth all the rest: here Mr. Harting comes out as the accomplished ornithologist; I have read every word with pleasure and instruc- tion: in this field he will assuredly hereafter make a name more illustrious than many of his predecessors. The following, on size of curlews, is also extremely interesting, and I could wish such notes on magnitude extended to all our waders. “Those who have had much experience in shore shooting must have remarked how much curlews differ from one another in size. Whether this difference is dependent upon age or sex is a point still discussed by naturalists. We have hitherto been inclined to believe that the variation is owing to age; but as this conclusion has been drawn chiefly from external appearances, and in a few instances only from actual dissection (for we generally eat all the curlews we get), and, as in the case of other waders,— for example, the bartailed godwit,—the female has proved to be invariably much larger than the male, it is possible that the same rule may hold good with the curlew.”—P. 51. Here I take leave of this amusing little book, to which I heartily wish every success, and hope soon to see a second edition, in which the commissariat may be omitted, and all other émpedimenta to success entirely removed. Epwarkp NEwMaN. Ornithological Notes from Norfolk—October to December, 1871. By Henry Stevenson, Esq., and J. H. Gurney, Jun., Esq. n OCTOBER. Jay.—At the latter end of this month jays were unusually plentiful at Cromer, indicating a migratory movement.—G.* Pheasant.— A hen just beginning to assume male plumage was shot at Trimmingham, and a more advanced one was soon after observed at Northrepps.—G. Rook.—At the close of this month some of the farmers were endeavouring to keep off the large flocks of rooks by lighting fires in their fields.—G. * The letter G is appended to Mr. Gurney’s communications in this series, in order to facilitate reference, at a future time, to the responsible author of any particular note. 2978 Tue ZooLocist—Marc#, 1872. Brambling.—October 5. A few bramblings at Northrepps, being the only ones seen there this season, as far as I know.—G. Ring Ouzel.—October 4. A ring ouzel noticed by the keeper at Northrepps.—G. Woodcock.—October 29. A woodcock seen flying over Cromer churchyard.—G. Little Stint.—Two little stints were shot at Terrington, near Lynn, on the 4th. Gray Phalarope.—A single bird killed some time this month near Lynn. Spoonbill.—A rather late specimen was bought in Yarmouth Market on the 14th, and may have been the one seen near Orford by Mr. Leach (Zool. 8. 8.2871). It weighed three pounds fourteen ounces, and had no crest or pectoral band, nor did I find the twisted trachea.—G. Greater Spotted Woodpecker.—Oct.7. One at Northrepps.— G. Whites Thrush—Whether or not other recorded examples of this rare thrush have been merely young missel thrushes, as hinted in an editorial foot-note (S. S. 2912), there is no question as to the specific identity of the bird announced by Mr. T. E. Gunn (S. S. 2848) to have been killed at Hickling, in this county, on the 10th of October. Mr. Borrett, who shot it in a low meadow within about a mile of the sea-coast, described its flight as resembling that of a woodcock, for which bird he mistook it as it rose some thirty yards off. This very beautiful specimen is exactly repre- sented by the figure in Gould’s ‘ Birds of Great Britain.’ Richardson’s Skua.—An immature bird was killed somewhat inland, at Burlingham, on the 14th. In Mr. Durnford’s recent note on this species (S. S. 2906) the heading should read Suffolk, not Norfolk. Gray Crow.—On the 27th, as a gentleman was shooting par- tridges at Northrepps, he wounded one, which fell at some distance, and which he sent his retriever to fetch. ‘The dog was gone a long time, and on his going to look after him, he actually found a gray crow disputing the possession of the wounded bird.—@. Nocturnal Flight of Birds ——To the notices in the ‘ Zoologist’ for October and November, under the above heading, of the occur- rence, in various parts of England, of immense flocks of plovers and other birds, on the nights of the 6th, 8th and 11th of September, it may be as well to add that, on the evening of the 6th, after a very THE ZooLoGcist— Marcu, 1872. 2979 severe thunder-storm, with torrents of rain, which commenced about 9 p.m. and lasted nearly an hour, an immense flight of birds was heard calling over this city (Norwich). The clouds were still black and the lightning very vivid, and the birds, evidently consisting of many different species, continued to fly round and round, calling incessantly. By eleven o’clock the storm had passed over, and as the moon rose and the stars shone out once more the mingling notes of these migrants died away in the distance. Sclavonian Grebe.—A male shot near Lynn on the 28th. NOVEMBER. Turdi.— Fieldfares and redwings seem extremely scarce at Northrepps, near Cromer, and the keeper notes a great paucity of thrushes. They are altogether outnumbered by their more stay-at- home relations, the blackbirds, and by that increasing species, the missel thrush.—G. Golden Plover.—A very large flock seen on the 81st near St. Faith’s workhouse.—G. Woodcock.— Woodcocks have been remarkably scarce this season. Thirteen at Hempstead and Bodham were the most obtained in one day’s shooting anywhere about here.—G. Redbreast.—A light buff-coloured variety was killed at Caistor, near Yarmouth, on the 6th. Purple Sandpiper.—Between the 3rd and 7th of this month five specimens of this sandpiper were shot at Beeston, near Cromer, and, though in close vicinity to the sea, are stated to have been found on the margin of a small pond of fresh water, a rather un- usual locality, surely, for this species? Another specimen, shot at Burgh, near Yarmouth, was also sent up to Norwich on the 6th. These proved to be males, and were all, more or less, in immature plumage. An adult bird was shot at Stalham on the 13th. Whooper.—On the 6th a fine old bird was shot in Blakeney Channel, an unusually early appearance on our Norfolk coast. Redthroated Diver.—A specimen killed on the 11th, though in im- mature plumage, showed traces of red feathers coming on the throat. Gannet.—A beautiful adult bird was shot near Cromer during the first week of this month. Hen Harrier.—An adult female killed on the 10th. Peregrine.—A very fine young female was shot at Hellesdon, close to Norwich, by a man who was waiting for wood pigeons in 2980 THE ZooLocist— Marcu, 1872. a small plantation. The peregrine dashed through the tops of the fir trees at the pigeons, and was killed in the act. An immature male was shot near Yarmouth about the 20th. Liltle Gull.—A young bird was killed on Horsey Mere on the 21st, and most probably others have appeared off the coast, though not driven in by stress of weather. Even in its immature dress it had a rich rosy tint on the breast-feathers. Waxwing.—A single adult male, with seven wax tips to each wing, was shot at Burgh, near Yarmouth, about the 23rd—the only one, this winter, that has come into our birdstuffer’s hands. Glaucous Gull.— An immature bird was seen in Leadenhall Market on the 24th, by Mr. J. H. Gurney, said to have been sent from Yarmouth. Richardson’s Skua.—On the same date as above Mr. Gurney also saw, in Leadenhall Market, a nearly adult example of this skua, killed off Yarmouth. Pomarine Skua.—On the 25th an immature specimen was shot at Yarmouth and sent to Norwich the same evening. A somewhat older bird was killed, quite inland, near Hingham, about the 18th. Redbreasted Merganser.—On the 28th an adult female in Norwich Market. Merlin.—An adult female shot on the 21st. Goosander.—November 2. A male shot near Lynn. “ Paget's” Pochard.—During the early and severe frost that occurred at the beginning of this month, when even the waters of our largest and deepest broads were “laid” across, a specimen of this wild hybrid between the white-eyed pochard (Fuligula nyroca) and the common pochard (F. ferina) was killed, amongst a number of “cripples,” on Hickling Broad, on the 13th, and two similar birds are said to have been seen at the same time. This specimen proved to be a male, on dissection, as were the two previous examples killed in this county (an immature male at Rollesby on the 27th of February, 1845, and an adult male at Little Waxham on the 24th of February, 1859). The present bird, in nearly adult plumage, resembles the Waxham specimen, and, like both the previous ones, more resembles the Nyroca duck in form and colour than the pochard, a rich chestnut predominating upon the head, neck and breast, with an entire absence of black. When fresh killed the eyes were white, with a slight tinge of lemon-yellow. For a notice of the two previous Norfolk specimens, of two THE ZooLocist— Marcu, 1872. 2981 purchased some years ago in the London market, and of a pair taken near Rotterdam in April, 1850, see ‘Zoologist’ for 1859 (p. 6536). DECEMBER. The early and severe frosts which occurred at the beginning of November brought great quantities of fowl to our coast, and the usual large flocks of redwings and fieldfares, with snow buntings, bramblings and other finches; but these, owing to the severity of the weather, soon passed on to the southward. Tufted ducks were very plentiful, and a few adult male goldeneyes, rarely seen till later in the season, were observed amongst others on the frozen broads. A single whooper swan was killed at Blakeney as early as the 6th of November, and after a heavy fall of snow on the 17th our market presented the ordinary aspect of mid-winter, from the number of wood pigeons, lapwings and gulls (chiefly blackheaded) that were exhibited for sale. December followed suit with a very heavy fall of snow on the 7th, drifted in some places to a considerable depth, which, though protecting vegetation from the intense frost that continued with little abatement for some days, proved “ hard times” for the birds of all kinds, both inland and on the coast. The cold experienced on the night of the 7th, when the thermometer fell below zero, was not exceeded at any time during the severe winter of 1870-71. Partridges, both English and French, killed out of the fences, were now plentiful in the market, with large bunches of dunlins and other Tringe; trays full of greenfinches, mostly male birds, chaffinches, thrushes, redwings and larks, showed the gunners were busy, but neither sportsmen nor collectors bene- fitted much. The winter had begun too soon and was too suddenly severe. Our northern visitants, when thus overtaken before the usual period, proceed southward at once, and rarely return till the spring, and the wild-fowl, snipes, and even the coots, frozen out, left the broads altogether, and most of them the coast and salt- marshes. At this time large flocks of wild swans were observed passing over, and geese of various kinds were seen on the wing or feeding warily in the open country, but very few were procured, and adult goosanders, mergansers, and other rare fowl, have been “conspicuous by their absence,” both in our markets and bird- stuffers’ shops. Siskins have been extremely scarce, and no mealy redpolls have been taken by the birdcatchers. SECOND SERIES—VOL, VII. P 2982 THE ZooLocist—M arcu, 1872. Gulls.—A surprising number about the fields between South Walsham and Cromer: they appear to consist chiefly of common gulls, with blackheaded ones and a few of the larger herring. They do no harm, but a solitary and immature great blackback was hung up as a scarecrow, as a warning to the rooks.—G. Peregrine.—December 1. A peregrine, which had been seen by the keeper at Northrepps on the 25th of November, was again seen by him, in the evening, to swoop down on a covey of partridges.—G. Smew.—Mr. Pashley informs me that he saw a flock of seven at Cley.—G. Bullfinch.—On the 13th a melanism of the female bullfinch was caught at Bealaugh, which I purchased of Mr. Gunn. The body of it is very dark brown and all the head pure black. It is not the first capture of a wild melanism of this species in Norfolk (cf. B. of Norf. p. 234).—G. Hen Harrier.—On the 23rd an adult male was shot at Hickling. It is to be hoped it was a migratory specimen, and not one of two pairs that nested there last summer, and which were creditably spared by an amateur collector. The specimen retains a little brown upon the occiput, and the back is not yet of a pure gray.—G. Magpie.— A magpie was shot at Hempstead, where they are not uncommon, on the 12th.—G. Purple Heron.—A very young female purple heron, in good condition and in an interesting state of plumage, was shot at Horning, on, | believe, the 4th, on which day a snowy owl, already recorded (Zool. S.S. 2912) was shot at Southrepps. The specimen was taken to Mr. T. Roberts, of whom I bought it: he found in its stomach two mice. Only two occurrences are mentioned in the ‘ Birds of Norfolk’ in the last thirty-nine years, which’shows how rare this species has become, like the squacco heron, the night heron, &c., which were all most plentiful fifty years ago, judging from the records which remain to us, and which are all given in the work just quoted.—G. Jackdaw.—In the fields at Northrepps, with rooks or singly, where it may be known by its size, voice, and wavering unsteady flight.—G. Whooper.—Some wild swans seen at Ranworth the last week in this month were probably whoopers. in, THE ZooLocist—MarcH, 1872. 2983 Bearded Tits.—December 30. A small flock of bearded tits seen at Ranworth, but it was too windy for them, and the reeds are too dense to get a good view. They are said never to come into the smaller broad of South Walsham adjoining.—G. Starling.—Within a few yards of Mr. Jary’s house at Burlingham is the largest starling-roost I ever saw, in a laurel shrubbery. They begin to pour in about four o’clock in the afternoon, and no amount of shouting will drive them away. The noise and mess they make is something altogether unusual.—G. Coot.—An utter absence from the broads of coots, which left Ranworth, South Walsham, Hickling, Breydon and Rockland, when the frost set in. Mr. Lubbock says, “A broad entirely devoid of coots would be London without sparrows, or Newcastle without coals.” The marshmen appeared to think it an unusual thing, and the annual coot shooting at Hickling has had to be put off in consequence.—G. Brent Geese.—A few young birds in Norwich Market on the 2nd. Wigeon.—A pinioned bird, which had been kept on the same water at Hoveton for eighteen years, died on the 18th of this month. Quail.—An old female shot at Whinburgh on the 9th. Merlin.—A very beautiful adult male was shot at Plumstead, near Norwich, on the 8th. Bitterns.—As usual in severe weather, several were killed during this month. One was shot at Plumstead on the 8th; one at Hickling on the 5th; and another at Colney, within three miles of Norwich, on the 11th. Green Sandpiper.—One killed about the 9th during severe frost. Great Northern Diver.—An immature bird was killed on the coast early in the month, and a young male at Lynn on the 10th: this bird had the lower mandible three-quarters of an inch shorter than the upper, probably from an injury when very young. Several observed off the coast, as well as redthroated divers. Pied Woodpecker.—An adult male was shot at Blofield on the 5th, and an adult female at Hoveton on the 15th. Bean Goose.—Several examples of this species, which was hard to procure in the severe winter of 1870-71, have been killed in different parts of the county. One killed at Potter Heigham on the 22nd had several white feathers round the base of the bill; it weighed nine pounds. 2984 Tue ZooLtocist—Marcu, 1872. Montagu’s Harrier.—A fine old male of this species was seen to alight on the ground in a small plantation at Eaton, near Norwich, on the 2lst, and was recognised by its small size and general plumage as it rose with something in its claws. On the further side of the covert the bird was shot at, but unfortunately escaped with a broken leg. A redwing, quite warm and bleeding, was picked up close to the spot, no doubt dropped by the harrier when wounded. Goosander.—Two young females killed near Yarmouth about the 14th. Bernicle Goose.—An adult male and female of this species were purchased in Norwich Market on the 29th. These birds were not met with on our coast at all last winter, in spite of the long and severe frosts, and it is nearly ten years since any have been seen either in our market or birdstuffers’ shops. Whoopers and Bewick’s Swan.— But one Bewick’s swan has appeared in the Norwich Market this winter, on the 9th, and no whoopers, and only two of the latter were exhibited for sale at Lynn during the early frost. Ornithological Notes, chiefly from Devonshire, during the Autumn and Winter of 1871-72. By Joun GatcomBeE, Esq. Martin.—On the 28th of September I observed martins feeding their young, which had not left their nests, under the eaves of a house in a village near Tiverton, in Devonshire. Robin.—Witnessed a fight between two robins, which were so desperately engaged and tumbling about on the ground, that my little dog, making a rush, actually seemed to separate them with his nose before they flew off, and I only wonder that he did not kill them both. Geese diving.— When walking by the River Parret, if Somerset- shire, I watched a flock of five tame geese, which were constantly diving and keeping down for nearly a quarter of a minute at a time, Sometimes they were all under water together. I do not remember having noticed an instance of the kind before. Phalarope.—Very scarce during the past autumn. Only one has been observed in Plymouth Sound, where they are sometimes so plentiful. Purple Sandpiper.—On the 2nd of November I watched two purple sandpipers on the rocks: as is usual with this species, they THe Zootocist—Marcg, 1872. 2985 were exceedingly tame, and would not rise until a stone was thrown at them. Razorbills and Guillemots.—Razorbills were particularly plenti- ful in Plymouth Sound this winter, which I hope might be accounted for by the working of the Sea-bird Act; and I only wish something could be done to prevent so many guillemots being destroyed by the mackerel fishermen in the spring, for it is really distressing to see the numbers they bring on shore in their boats, both dead and alive. ‘These unfortunate birds get what is termed “ meshed” in the long drift-nets. I have seen full fifty in one boat, many of which were alive, and apparently not in the least injured. The living birds, I am sorry to say, instead of being set at liberty, are carried about by boys in the streets for sale, and allowed to die a miserable and lingering death. I have myself, from time to time, bought many of these poor birds, just for the pleasure of letting them go; but constantly doing so I find rather expensive work. It is very strange that, among many hundreds of these guillemots examined by me, I have been able to find but three or four of the ringed or bridled species, and comparatively very few razorbills are found among them. Most of the guillemots caught are in full breeding plumage. ; Shags.—Shags are becoming far more plentiful on our coast than they have been for many years. This species may be easily known from the cormorant, when on the water, by its manner of diving: when going down it gives a kind of leap, as if to give its body an impetus. I have seen dusky grebes do this, especially in a tideway or in deep water. Northern Diver.—On the 15th of January I watched a northern diver, with a pocket telescope, for full ten minutes, struggling with an eel or very large pipe-fish, which it was trying to swallow, diving with and slfaking it as a dog would a rat. Being held by the middle, the fish would writhe and twist itself into all manner of shapes, sometimes in the form of a hoop. Once a passing kittiwake made a stoop at it, but the wary diver was under water in an instant. I have watched a northern diver struggling with a large flat-fish for nearly an hour, and which I think it must have got rid of at length piecemeal. On the 19th I watched a northern diver, which invariably kept its mouth open for some seconds before going down, and I have also observed a razorbill do the same thing. 2986 Tue Zootocist—Marcu, 1872. Gannet.—On the 16th of January some fishermen brought in a fine gannet, which had been caught with a line and hook baited with the half of a herring. Redthroated Diver and Blackheaded Gull—On the 20th of January I walked many miles along the coast, and observed one redthroated diver and some hundreds of blackheaded gulls, in flocks, resting on the water just outside the breakers. On one occasion a whole flock suddenly rose and flew direct to a field in which a man was ploughing, and after hovering round him for awhile began to dip and alight in the newly made furrows, picking up the earthworms turned up by the plongh. Near the same field I once shot a kittiwake, which brought up a mass of earthworms nearly as large as my fist. Cormorant, §c.—There were also, on the 20th of January, a great many cormorants and shags to be seen fishing and drying their wings on the rocks. On the 23rd I saw two northern divers, many razorbills, and one guillemot near the entrance of the Hamoaze. Kittiwakes.—Many ornithologists have an idea that the kittiwake is only a summer visitor to our coasts, but with us it is met with in autumn and winter, and at the present time it is very numerous. Of all the British gulls the kittiwake is by far the most tame, and least able to bear storms or severe weather, during a continuance of which they are often picked up dead or exhausted on the land, sometimes even in the middle of towns. Only a few days since, during a severe gale, a kittiwake alighted in the street, just before my door, and was caught by some very small children. It is also very fearless, and will attend on the fishing-boats so closely as to almost take the bait from the fishermen’s hands. A curious circum- stance happened to myself and some friends when on the water shooting some years since. A kittiwake being fired at and struck very hard by one of the party immediately dropped a fish, and, fluttering with difficulty away for about two hundred yards, settled on the water. We, of course, kept an eye on this gull, fully intending to pick itup; but, strange to say, a little time after, when every gun in the boat had been discharged at other gulls, to our great astonishment, up got the wounded kittiwake, and, flying slowly and deliberately towards our boat, stooped down and picked up the fish it had dropped close to the side, and flew steadily sea- wards until out of sight. I shall never forget the disappointed look OO THE ZooLocist—M arcu, 1872. 2987 of one of my friends, who, striking at the bird with his empty gun, exclaimed, “Well! I call ¢hat impudence!” A few years since I saw a flock of kittiwakes tugging and pulling at some long sea- weed attached to the rocks, lifting it completely out of the water, as if trying to fly off with it. During these prevailing gales the boys about the Plymouth quays have caught and knocked down many kittiwakes with stones. Cry of Divers.—Mr. G. F. Mathew, in his interesting “ Orni- thological Notes” (Zool. S. 8. 2917), remarks on the extraordinary action displayed by a blackthroated diver when fired at. I have had some experience in diver shooting, and have invariably found that when a diver thrusts forward its neck on a level with the water, in the manner described, that it is mortally wounded, and is sure in a short time to float dead on the surface. I have also heard redthroated divers utter their melancholy cry when wounded, even after having been taken into the boat. This cry is very similar to that made when calling to each other on the water or flying over- head. Razorbills often croak loudly when wounded. With respect to the cry of the diver, I will mention a circumstance which hap- pened to myself when quite a boy, and one which I shall never forget. Observing a large northern diver fishing in a rather small bay, and having a gun with me, I managed to get together a crew of small boys, gave chase in a boat and knoeked it over, apparently, quite dead on the water. We then got it into the boat, and laid it out with great care on the stern seats. On landing I took the bird by the legs, and proceeded to carry it home in great triumph; but, to my horror, when going through the town, it seemed to quite recover, and persisted in uttering its mournful cry all through the streets. Being followed by a large crowd expressing pity for the poor bird, and crying, I fear, “shame” upon me, I| did not know what to do, but would gladly have put it into the water again had it not been severely wounded in the head and neck. Wishing to get home as quickly as possible under the circumstances, the con- stant stoppages I was subjected to from people who wanted to know the name of the bird annoyed me exceedingly; and when I told them, the answer was, “ Northern diver! oh, what a shame!” Among the people who inquired was a Polish count, who not being able to speak or understand English well, could not comprehend the word “diver,” but still persisted in knowing; when, after making all manner of motions with my hands to represent diving, 2988 TuE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1872. I luckily thought of the French name “ plongeon,” which satisfied him immediately. This bird was rather a large specimen, weighing eight pounds and a quarter. I was once much amused when carrying a glaucous gull through the town, on overhearing the names given to the bird by different persons—one saying it was a pigeon, another a wild duck, one a shag, and another a woodcock ; but, to crown the whole, just before I reached home, a little boy calling to his companion, exclaimed, “ Look here, Bill, that gentle- man has shot a geese!” Whilst on this subject, I may mention an instance of the fierceness and pugnacity of the redthroated diver, which came under my own observation. Having heard that a person in Plymouth had a diver confined alive in a box, I imme- diately went to buy it in order to set it at liberty; but the instant the man raised the lid out struck the diver at his eyes, lacerating one severely. However, I secured my bird, carried it down to the sea, and had the pleasure of seeing it dive away, as if nothing had happened. Redwings.—Strange to say, I too observed the large flight of redwings on the Ist of November, mentioned by Mr. Mathew in his “Notes.” On the Tothill Road, near Plymouth, the hedges, trees and fields were quite alive with them, but I did not see any fieldfares. J. GATCOMBE. Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Devon, February 6, 1872. Notes on the Gouliot Caves in the Island of Sark. By the Rev. F. A. WALKER, M.A. THOUGH several years have elapsed since I visited the Gouliot Caves, the impression that they, and the wonderful marine produc- tions which they contain, created, has never been effaced. Owing to the fact that the entrance to these caverns is situate at the extremity of a headland, the tide scarcely ever, except during the equinoxes, recedes from the opening sufficiently to admit of ingress. The opening of the first cave which we visited, and the largest, is about fifteen feet in height. Inside is a large rocky chamber, some sixty feet from roof to floor, and great boulders piled up within. As the sea surrounds these places on two sides, on proceeding to the further end I obtained a very pretty view of the cliffs and sea; THE ZooLtocist—Marcu, 1872. 2989 and, on looking back through the dark rock, beheld a fine effect of the sun playing on the blue waters, through the opposite aperture. On the right hand, too, going in, there is a dark passage branching off and communicating with the sea. The tide flows a good way into the interior, and here also the look of the sunbeams on the waves at the further end of this gloomy corridor of Nature is exceedingly picturesque. The walls of the great cavern are completely covered with a large species of barnacle, red and green sea anemones (such as are ordinarily known as “ strawberries”), bright orange sponges, &c. What constitutes its peculiarly curious and interesting character is that the tide rising to the height of forty-one feet within, an idea may be formed of the appearance of the rocks at a considerable depth below the sea, as well as of the natural objects that stud their sides, by inspection of the rugged walls of this vaulted chamber. It is a splendid place, but this was only the first I saw. Above our knees in water, and the tide running strong, we waded toa second. The spot I now beheld was beautiful to look at; the sides of the cave were completely covered in parts with clusters of the Tubularia, expanding their delicate arms and feathery mouths ; in others with bright yellow and orange Actinias, of large size and in great numbers, true flowers of the deep, resembling in their shape large Alamanda blossoms, some expanded, others closed. Having visited other passages and collected some uncommon sorts of sponges, we retraced our steps, as Elias Gill, the guide, well acquainted with the sudden approaches the tide makes to these caverns, warned us of its rise. On our second expedition to the Gouliot, we took a boat at the foot of the cliffs to visit some rocky passages that can only be approached by water. It was here that 1 found some scarce sponges and Grantia compressa and G. ciliata in plenty: these last are small and delicate species, like ivory tassels, adhering to the ends of the sea-weed, and conspicuous far below the surface of the pellucid waters in which our boat was heaving with the strong current. We had to make a sudden snatch at the sponges and then withdraw our hand as rapidly, to prevent its being crushed between the cliff and the side of our small bark. Live oysters were adhering to the rock; the Aphrodite, or sea-mouse, with its green and purplish iridescent hairs, was to be met with, as also the sea-slug, from which the dye is obtained: brought home and placed ina SECOND SERIES—YVOL, VII. Q 2990 THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1872. basin of salt water it died in the night, staining the water with a deep carmine. The above is a faint attempt to delineate the marvellous treasures of the deep, and the effects of light and shade in these chambers, so difficult of access, and withal so well repaying investigation. F. A. WALKER. 15, Robert Street, N.W., February 5, 1872. Ten Female Puppies in a Litter.—I do not know whether the following cutting from ‘ Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser,’ a West Somerset- shire paper, published at Crewkerne, is worthy of insertion in the ‘ Zoologist’ :— ** Crewkerne, February 5, 1872. “ Sir,—My pointer gave birth to ten puppies on Friday last. They were all of the female sex. Can any of your readers mention a similar circum- stance? And is it not rather extraordinary ?—Yours obediently, T. E. D.” I know the gentleman whose initials are “'T. E. D” in the letter.— C. W. Penny ; Wellington College, Wokingham, February 18, 1872. [I think it a most extraordinary event.—E. Newman.] Birds attracted by Lighthouses—In February, 1871, I received the following birds, in spirits, which had killed themselves against the “‘ Owers” light-vessel off Selsey Bill (West Sussex) during the preceding autumn and winter :—Two storm petrels, two fieldfares, a robin (doubtless a migrant), a dunlin and a redwing; and I have since received a sedge warbler, a greater whitethroat, two wheatears, a jack snipe, and another storm petrel. Larks and starlings I told my correspondent that I did not care about. As it is not often the ornithologist sees birds in the flesh which fly against light- houses,—they being invariably cooked or given to the cat,—a record of the above may be worth making.—J. H. Gurney, jun. ; Northrepps, Norwich. Ornithological Notes from Guernsey (continued from Zool. 8.8. 2911)— Altogether my notes this month are very meagre, and not particularly interesting. One or two things, however, have occurred which are perhaps worth noticing. The first of these is that in the field close to the house I observed a flock of starlings on the 6th of December. Starlings are never very common here, and are generally seen in the country. The only cause T can think of as sending them so far into town is the great cold there has been (for Guernsey), and in the town it is generally warmer than in the country: they stayed for many hours, and at last started, going northward. On the 10th of December I saw, at Couch’s shop, some common herons, Tue Zootoctst—Marcu, 1872. . 299] which had been shot here. January, 1872.—This year begins with very little. The weather is very warm, and on the 11th there was quite a concert of the birds. Blackbirds seem in full song. It has been very wet, and I have been much amused at the house sparrows: they seem to dislike wetting their tails, for they stick them nearly straight up into the air when hopping on the damp grass. During the last week of this month a shag was shot with a splendid crest: the plumage was the peculiar shining green; altogether it looked as if it was in full summer plumage. And now farewell, a long farewell, to all our sea birds. Since Mr. Cecil Smith sent you his Guernsey Ornithological Notes the Bird Act has been passed. The “ close time” extends from the Ist of February to the 1st of October, the idea being that the sea birds breed here earlier than in England. Allowing this I should have thought that the breeding season would have been over the earlier, and that therefore the 1st of August would have been more than long enough. Mr. Cecil Smith’s remarks about the museum I quite agree with; but unless the Bird Act can be altered, I do not see the good of starting the ornithological part afresh; and I only regret that the museum had not been started before the Bird Act had been passed, for then the “open time” might have been longer. Now the only thing one has to look forward to is the arrival of the cuckoo.—C. B. Carey; Candie, Guernsey. Abnormal Colouring in Birds.—To-day I have seen some very curious freaks of Nature in the following birds :—Two white linnets (Linota canna- bina); a fawn-coloured hedgesparrow (it is very rare to find variety in this species); a bullfinch with a nearly white back, and the rest of the plumage of the usual colour; and a house sparrow with the upper mandible pro- jecting a quarter of an inch beyond the lower one. I have purchased them for my collection. I also saw a white sky lark. All these birds have been killed in the county.—J. Whitaker, jun. ; Ramsdale House, Notts. Whitetailed Eagle in Gloucestershire.—A specimen of the whitetailed eagle was shot about the end of December last at Doddington Park, Gloucestershire, the seat of Sir Gerald Codrington, and was examined by me at Mr. Wheeler's, birdstuffer, of this city, where it had been sent for preservation. It was a male bird in immature plumage (apparently a bird of the year), and in good condition, and measured two feet eleven inches in length. I have not heard of the previous occurrence of this species in Gloucestershire, although in the adjoining county of Somerset it has occasionally been captured.—Marcus S. C. Rickards ; 37, Cornwallis Crescent, Clifton, February 17, 1872. ; Ospreys in Hampshire—On the 13th of February, Ford, the warder, informed me that two ospreys were fishing at Fleet Pond, a sheet of water over one hundred acres in extent, in the Government lands. He went down about eleven in the morning to drive the swans off the pond, which collect 2992 Tue ZooLocist—Marca, 1872. there in great numbers, sometimes ten or twenty at a time, and are sup- posed to destroy the fish-spawn. The ospreys were circling over the water and constantly plunging for fish: he watched them dive over twenty times ; the effect he likened to a cannon-shot striking the water, but never saw them emerge with a fish. Ford has not seen an osprey at Fleet Pond for four years. Is not February early for them to be moving northward? Large flocks of wild ducks and wigeons frequent this pond in autumn and winter: they remain all day in the centre, well out of gun range, and never allow a boat to approach within a hundred yards of them. On this morning Ford says that all the ducks seemed perfectly terrified by the ospreys wheeling overhead, and, instead of taking flight from the pond, contented themselves with diving when he approached them in a punt. I got down about three in the afternoon, with a gun, not with a.desire to shoot the ospreys, but to try and immolate some of the ducks: however, the fish- hawks had gone, and the wild ducks had quite recovered their wits. I fired a long shot at three redbreasted mergansers, but did not kill. It is a fine sight to raise a flock of ten or a dozen noble swans from this pond. I get within eighty yards of them in a punt and fire a blank charge, then with tremendous flapping and commotion the flock rises; for about twenty strokes of the pinions the huge birds flap the water, and seem to derive an impetus from the contact ; then they lift themselves up and circle round the pond, at times in a Y/ figure, at other times in single file: after a few circles they head away to the valley of the Thames, or in a westerly direction towards Dagmersfield, where there is a large sheet of water. Is there any penalty attached to killing wandering swans on water where one has the right of shooting ? not that I have any murderous intention towards these poor birds, but I have an idea that they are protected. by some old Act.— H. W. Feilden ; Aldershot, February 15, 1872. Abundance of Shorteared Owls in Nottinghamshire—A great number of shorteared owls have been sent to be preserved this season: one man tells me that he has had about twenty: they have been generally sent in pairs.— J. Whitaker, jun. White’s Thrush.—The very valuable note of Mr. Gurney respecting this bird, in the last number of the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. 8. 2940), will, I hope, lead those gentlemen who are fortunately in possession of White’s thrushes to count the number of tail-feathers they contain. If each of them is found to have fourteen tail-feathers, then the question of variety is settled, as the missel thrush certainly has but twelve. JT myself think the bird a variety of the missel thrush, but, as I have not seen a White’s thrush, I ought not to be allowed to express any opinion, yet I think Mr. Gould’s figure in his magnificent work on the ‘ Birds of Great Britain,’ rather strengthens that opinion. Have two White’s thrushes ever been found together in any country ?—F’. Boyes; Beverley. Tue ZooLocist—Marcg, 1872. 2993 On the Gregarious Roosting of the South-African Colies—The very curious habit recorded in the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. 8. 2943), by the Rev. Murray A. Mathew, of the gregarious roosting of the longtailed tits, has an interesting parallel in the habits of the three South-African species of the genus Colius. The following is a translation of Le Vaillant’s account of the roosting of these birds, as given in his ‘ Oiseaux d'Afrique’ (vol. vi. p. 32):—* They assemble in the same bush to roost, and it is singular that they sleep suspended from the branches, with the head downwards, and that they then press so closely one against another that they form a mass comparable to the swarms of bees which one may see suspended like balls from the branches of trees.” Mr. Layard confirms this statement, from report, in his ‘ Birds of Africa’ (p. 221), and Mr. Ayres, from personal observation of Colius striatus,’ in the ‘ Ibis’ for 1864 (p. 859).—J. H. Gurney ; Marldon, Totnes, January 31, 1872. Clustering of the Longtailed Tit.— I can fully corroborate what Mr. Mathew says as to the clustering of the longtailed tit. The most remarkable instance of it which I ever heard of occurred at Blackwell, near Darlington. A birdstuffer named Noble saw on a fir tree what he thought was a pheasant: he fired at it, and immediately the mass dissolved into more than a score of longtailed tits: he told me that he thought he killed a dozen of them. ‘That this habit was not overlooked by Yarrell appears from the following statement in his ‘ British Birds’:—<‘‘ The young family of the year keep company with the parent birds, during their first autumn and winter, and generally crowd close together on the same branch at roosting time, looking when thus huddled up like a shapeless lump of feathers only.” (B. B., 1st ed., vol. i. p. 346.) —J. H. Gurney, jun.; February 1, 1872. - Waxwings in East Yorkshire——On the 3rd of November last an adult female waxwing was shot, by Mr. James Runton, out of a flock of birds at Aike, a township some few miles from Beverley. He said that seeing a flock of small birds on some hawthorn bushes, he fired a shot at them, and the result was the death of the above bird; but whether the flock was com- posed entirely of waxwings, or whether this was the only one amongst them, he could not say, nor did he know what the bird was until he came to Beverley a day or two following. There were also shot, on the 25th of January, two others, male and female, at Burton Agnes, near Burlington: these latter were both immature, and were accompanied by a third which escaped. The crops of all three contained haws.—F’. Boyes. Snipe “Drumming” on the 2nd of February.—Crossing a moor in the neighbourhood on the 2ud instant, I was surprised to hear a snipe “drumming.” I do not remember ever to have heard this at so early a date before. In my snipe-shooting days the first “drumming” of a snipe was the signal for ceasing to shoot: the average time for this was about the 2994 Tue Zootocist—Marcu, 1872. last week in February, though in one season {1858) the first “ drumming” snipe was heard on the 16th of March: this was, however, the latest date I have ever recorded for the commencement of that peculiar sound.— O. P.-Cambridge ; Bloxworth Rectory, Blandford, February 8, 1872. Snipes “Drumming” in Winter.—On the 5th instant, whilst on the look out for wild ducks at “flight,” I heard a snipe “drumming”: this is not very unusual, as I have on several occasions heard them drumming in winter, but always at dusk. I have noticed that whilst drumming at this season they never utter the note “ca, ca, ca, ca, ca” when ascending, which they invariably do in the summer. All observers will know the note I mean.—F’. Boyes ; February 17, 1872. Virginian Colin in Nottinghamshire.—Since my notice of a Virginian colin having been shot near Nottingham, another specimen has been killed near the same place. They were both, to all appearance, wild birds.— J. Whitaker, jun. Bittern in East Yorkshire.—An exceedingly small and prettily marked variety of the common bittern was shot, by Mr. George Harland, at Sunk Island, in this Riding, on the 1st of December last. It was seen squatting in a ditch, and refused to rise until “‘ kicked” up. I was unfortunately unable to get the weight or measurements, as it had been mutilated to make into a “screen” before I saw it. I, however, examined the stomach, and found it contained the remains of several beetles. The bird was a female.— F. Boyes ; January, 1872. Razorbills, Guillemots, &c., picked ap in the Isle of Wight.—It is a long time since I sent you a note for the ‘ Zoologist,’ but the unusual number of birds that have been picked up on our shores during the last month is such an extraordinary occurrence that I cannot pass it by. After the very severe storm in January our shores from Compton Bay to Wat- combe Bay were lined with razorbills, guillemots, &c. I had upwards of a hundred brought to me between the 25th and 31st, most of them in very bad condition, and had evidently perished thus for want of food: not one of those that I skinned had a particle of fat upon them, whilst at this time of the year they are generally loaded with fat. I also obtained two puffins: these are the only two specimens I have ever obtained in the winter during the twenty-eight years I have collected. Seven gannets have been picked up and brought to me: this I consider very remarkable: we do get occa- sionally a specimen in very hard winters, but for seven of these powerful birds to be driven dead upon our shores shows the severity of the storm. It will be interesting to learn if these birds have been driven in like manner on other parts of the English coast, or whether they—viz. razorbills, guille- mots and puflins—were congregating here at the great breeding-place when the storm arose that destroyed them in such numbers.—H. Rogers; F'resh- water, Isle of Wight, February 18, 1872. i i th THE ZooLtocistT—Marcu, 1872. 2995 Razorbills, &e., picked up on the Coast of Cornwall.—The south-eastern shores of Cornwall have been covered with the dead bodies of various birds during the present month. In a walk of about a mile last week I numbered no less than sixty-nine dead bodies of razorbills, in various stages of decay, some of them very recent, whilst most of them were so far gone that it would have been difficult to recognise them were it not for their bills; but there could be no doubt of their identity. This state of things I know extends for upwards of ten miles; and when we consider the great numbers that have been carried away for the purpose of making plumes for ladies’ hats, and others that did not come ashore, I think we may safely conclude that thousands of the above-named species of birds have perished in this immediate neighbourhood within a fortnight; and if such has been the case in other parts of England, how vast must have been the mortality amongst them! During the same walk I also found eight guillemots, four gulls and a gannet. I do not know how to account for this destruction amongst sea- birds, as the bodies do not appear so much emaciated as to lead one to suppose they died from starvation ; yet, on the other hand, there are reasons to suppose, from the great tameness of other sea-birds, that such was the case, as on Tuesday last a gannet was seen on the rocks near here, which allowed a young man to approach sufficiently near it to enable him to knock it down with a stone: it was brought to me, and I found it in excellent plumage, but very thin in flesh. I have also heard from fishermen that whilst out on the fishing-ground the gulls will come up close to the boats and take garbage from their hands: I believe this to be authentic.— Stephen Clogg; Looe, February 20, 1872. [This morning (February 21st) I met a man going over London Bridge with a clothes-basket full of razorbills; he could not, or would not, tell me how he came by them, but, by the blood on their plumage, I think they had come by a violent death— EHdward Newman.] Pomarine Skuas in Torbay.—In my note on the above (Zool. S. 8. 2946) I made a slight error, in consequence of misunderstanding the information which was given me. The adult specimen there mentioned I now find was killed in Torbay some years since. The four killed on the 26th of October last were, two in the first and two in the second year’s plumage. This correction is not very important, but I am desirous of making it for the sake of accuracy.—J. H. Gurney. Frogs and Spiders.—In my “ Jottings on Snakes” I mentioned the fact that frogs had been known to catch birds, and I gave several instances which had come to my notice. This evening I was looking through Mr. Block- manu’s translation of the ‘ Ain-i-Akbari,’ by Abul Fazl-i-Allami, which gives an account of the great Akbar, and amongst the sports in which that 2996 THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1872. Emperor indulged was that of frogs, who, says the author, “ may also be trained to catch sparrows. This looks very funny.” He adds, “ His Majesty, from curiosity, likes to see spiders fight, and amuses himself with watching the attempts of the flies to escape, their jumps and combats with their foe.” He then quotes :— “T am in the power of Love: and if I have thousands of wishes, it is no crime; And if my passionate heart has an (unlawful) desire, it is no crime.” * And, in truth, his Majesty’s fondness for leopards is an example of the power of love, and an instance of his wonderful insight.” The historian may thank Abul Fazl for having preserved this little trait of Akbar’s character. In several places in the ‘ Ain,’ Abul Fazl tries hard to ascribe to his Majesty higher motives, in order to bring the Emperor’s passion for hunting in harmony with his character as the spiritual guide of the nation. But, as higher motives were insufficient to explain the fancy which Akbar took in frog and spider fights, Abul Fazl has to recognise the fact that peculiar leanings will lead even a sensible man to oddities and to actions opposed to the general tenor of his character—C. Horne; February 8, 1872. Muller’s Top-knot at St. Leonard’s.—About a month since a very good specimen of Muller's top-knot (Rhombus hirtus, Yarrell) was taken on the beach in a slight depression by a bay. It was nearly six inches in length, and so like Yarrell’s figure of it (Brit. Fishes, vol. ii. p. 243) that it might have been taken for the original specimen. It is evidently very rare, as neither the fishmongers nor the fishermen knew it.—J. S. Bowerbank ; 2, East Ascent, St. Leonard’s-on-Sea, February 21, 1872. Large Whiting near Penzance.— For the last fortnight, weather per- mitting, our fishermen have been taking very large whiting, nearly as large, on an average, as they usually run on the whiting ground off Polperro, in East Cornwall, where are usually taken the largest whiting. I received one last week, taken in our bay, two feet one inch and a half over all and one foot ten inches and a half from eye to fork. Unfortunately the fisherman who brought it to me had, in his kindness, gutted it, and so I could not take its girth or weight. It was, out and out, the largest whiting I ever saw.—Thomas Cornish ; Penzance, January 24, 1872. Silver Eel of Extraordinary Size.—By the kindness of Mr. Augustus Smith, of the Scilly Islands, I have received a silver eel (Anguilla acuti- rostris), taken in his fresh-water pond at Tresco, Islands of Scilly. It is three feet six inches and four-tenths in length over all; greatest girth nine inches and four-tenths; and weight, turning the scale at six pounds eight ounces. Its size is something altogether unprecedented in the West, although I see it has been taken of much larger size elsewhere in England. —lId.; February 3, 1872. THE ZooLtocGist—APRIL, 1872. 2997 Hotices of Hew Books, Bird-Life. By Dr. A. E. Breum. Translated from the German by H. M. Lasoucuere, F.Z.S., and W. Jessz, C.M.Z.S. London: John Van Voorst, 1, Paternoster Row. Parts I. to IV. Price 2s. 6d. each. Tuis is the fourth of those important serials which I enumerated in the August number of the ‘ Zoologist’ for last year as evincing the spirit of enterprise now so prevalent among our ornithologists and publishers. Making little pretence to novelty, and none to originality, this translation comes before us with an avowed object, that of introducing the study of Nature to the youth of our land in an agreeable and attractive form. This object is best explained by the leading paragraphs of the Prospectus, which are as follows :— “Tn these days, when Natural Science forms more or less a necessary portion of the education of the youth of our time, the universal adoption of such studies may be materially aided by the manner in which its various branches are brought before the public. First and foremost, to win your pupil’s willing attention let his introduction to Nature be through as bright a channel as lies in your power: by this means you develope a love for the study itself, which will materially assist the student in attaining to the higher branches of the Science. Should deep study not be the object, still we cannot but firmly believe that the perusal of a work of such a character will have a beneficial effect upon the reader, especially the youthful; some study of Nature rarely fails to soften the heart and refine the mind. “Tt is with the view of carrying out the above idea that the translators have essayed to produce a readable translation of Dr. Brehm’s charming book—a work so calculated to foster a taste for Natural History in the minds of the young, and yet of sufficient scientific value to have been most warmly received by continental naturalists.” I cannot sufficiently admire the design thus unfolded, but I am fully aware that in endeavouring to appreciate justly a work of these high pretensions I ought to have the whole, or at least a programme of the whole, in hand; and this not being the case, and having been solicited to notice the work in its present state, it will of course be seen that my remarks can only apply to Parts L., II., I1]., and IV., all that are at present published: hence I can pass no SECOND SERIES—VOL. VII. R 2998 THE ZooLocist—APRIL, 1872. judgment on what is yet to come. If, therefore, the work in its entirety, in its completed state, prove a good, a safe, a sound and a seductive guide to the student, the author as well as the translators must suffer materially by my expressing an adverse opinion of that small portion which may or may not fairly or sufficiently represent the whole. ‘I'he extracts I have made from the ‘ Birds of Europe,’ from ‘Cage Birds, and from ‘Yarrell’s History of British Birds,’ give a perfectly correct idea of the respective works, because each work is destined to be, when completed, a collection of what Gilbert White would have called “ Monographs,’* and the “ mono- graphs” I have selected, viz., the kestrel, the gray parrot, the Greenland falcon, and the Iceland falcon, are most agreeable and attractive, although I doubt not perfectly fair specimens of the entire works. In the three Parts hitherto published of ‘ Bird- Life’ there are no monographs to be selected, but each page, apart from the context, is to say the least an unsatisfactory example of the whole, because of its incompleteness. Nevertheless, I will do my best to give an intelligible and fair idea of what the work is to be. The qualifications necessary to produce a really good translation of any work on Science are threefold; a knowledge of the subject, a knowledge of the original language, and a knowledge of the language into which it has to be translated. In the present instance I cannot compliment the translators on being perfect in either qualification: the English is at times loose and careless, the meaning of the original seems imperfectly understood and imper- fectly rendered, and the translation of the vernacular names of the birds is very questionable. I will not give examples of these defects, because it would answer no good purpose, but propose to select passages which will enable the reader to judge for himself. The following passage, implying that the fear of man on the part of the feathered creation results from experience and is not instinctive, is entirely in accordance with my own conviction; but the author does not seem fully to explain his meaning: thus, when he contrasts the conduct of the Asiatic and African adjutants, he doubtless states facts, but leaves the explanation to the reader :— * Tt will be observed that the word “monograph ” when applied to a species has a different signification to the word when applied to a genus, a difference on which it were totally irrelevant and unnecessary to dilate here. Tue ZooLocist—APRIL, 1872. 2999 «Did man but encourage the birds which seek his society, there is no doubt his company would be more diligently sought after. By nature these light-hearted creatures are not distrustful, though they may become so when their confidence is abused; they are generally on familiar terms with other animals, and approach them without fear, and man also; but, unfortunately, on nearer acquaintance with the latter they must often learn, to their cost, that danger lurks beneath an appearance of too great intimacy; and this makes them as shy as they were formerly fearless. In uninhabited regions, like the steppes or primeval forest, and on desert islands, &c., the birds which inhabit them look upon the appearance of man certainly with astonishment, though not with fear. The auks, penguins, and eider ducks, which have their abode by thousands on the icebergs of the Polar seas, allowed themselves to be caught by the hand by those sailors who first landed on their domain. The larks of the Desert used to run fearlessly into my tent. The same may be observed in all places, where birds are conscious that shelter will be afforded them. On the other hand we see just as plainly how easily their trustful natures may become changed through rude experience. The Bohemian waxwings, which in hard winters sometimes appear among us, show from their behaviour that in their northern home they either never come in contact with man, or should they do so, they are treated with kindness; and when they leave us it is with a far different opinion of the ‘ lords of creation.’ Some birds appear distrustful and shy by nature; thus all long-legged birds are cautious; they avoid contact with man even in uninhabited localities, unless, like the common stork, they have been bred in his neighbourhood, I may say under his very eye, and are conscious of his friendly feeling toward them. The European black stork, however, will have nothing whatever to do with man, however much his white cousin may descant on the great advantages to be derived from the intimacy. The Marabou stork, or ‘adjutant’ of the East, parades the streets of all Indian towns, while the closely allied African form is never to ’ be seen in one.”—P. 99. Why is this the case: why does the adjutant feel so thoroughly fearless in India? we presume because he is protected on account of his services asascavenger. It is probably otherwise in Africa, but this rather obvious explanation is not given. Immediately following is a passage in which the contentious character of polygamous birds is graphically set forth, but the example scarcely meets the case, for the young cockerel in question could scarcely have been acting on the sexual impulse which impels polygamists to do battle for their harem, since the bird attacked was of a species totally different from himself. ~ $000 THE ZooLocist—APRIL, 1872. * All birds living in a state of polygamy are overbearing and quarrelsome in the highest degree; they fight to the death, not only with their rivals in the tender passion, but also for the sake of being lord paramount; and they show the most extraordinary courage and perseverance in these contests. Lenz gives us an example of this in the domestic fowl :—In the month of May, 1839, I happened to have a hen turkey, which had just hatched off a brood of twenty chicks, and, as soon as they were fit, placed mother and youngsters in the farmyard. Scarcely were they installed in their new abode when a young cockerel, barely a year old, dashed at the turkey, and a terrific battle ensued. As long as the two birds confined themselves to flying at one another, matters were pretty equal; when, however, it came to pecking, the tide of war turned decidedly in favour of the turkey, who, from its superior height, had the advantage of being able to strike directly downwards. At last it punished the cock’s head so severely that he could scarcely stir. I took him away, trusting he would have the good sense to leave the turkey alone in future, and, placing him in a quiet corner, told one of my people to keep an eye on the bird: I then left. On returning, about two hours later, the person I had left in charge told me that he had at first forgotten the birds, and found them later in the yard together. It appeared that the cockerel, leaving his corner, had again entered the yard and resumed the engagement, for he was found bleeding, and to all appear- ance dead, the turkey, with bloody beak, giving him an occasional extra peck. ‘I have laid him in the stable,’ said my informant. Feeling excessively annoyed, as the cockerel was an especial favourite of mine, I went to the stable, and, to my great delight, I found my poor bird still alive. Allowing him two days to recover, I again turned him down in the yard, feeling convinced that this time he would follow the old adage, that ‘ Discretion is the better part of valour,’ and keep out of the turkey’s way. But without a moment's hesitation the cockerel rushes recklessly at his old enemy, fighting with the energy of despair ; and finally, with some assistance, and by my drawing its attention once or twice to myself, he succeeded in putting the turkey to flight. This ended the struggle; and his adversary never afterwards questioned his right to the title of ‘cock of the walk.’”— P. 101. I may here observe that this combative propensity of males is by no means confined to polygamists; it is most prominent and observable in these because competitors are often on the spot: let a strange male intrude on the domain of a monogamist, even our redbreasted favourite, and we shall see an equal degree of pugnacity evinced. A trait in bird character has frequently been observed, but never clearly explained; the almost abject deference which is shown by THE ZooLocist—Aprit, 1872. 3001 members of one species to a single individual of another. Not only the travellers cited below, but all travellers gifted with powers of observation, have been struck by this,—Waterton, Audubon, Wilson, and many others: it is not superior strength or size or weapon, for these could avail but little against numbers. “*T found,’ says Sir Richard Schomburghk, ‘ the striking fact confirmed, that the deepest respect was paid to the king of the vultures (Sarcorhamphus Papa) from the species Cathartes Aura and C. Jota; even if hundreds of these are assembled round a carcase, they immediately retire at his approach. Perched on the neighbouring trees, or, in lieu of these, sitting on the ground, they wait, greedy and envious, until their feudal lord has satisfied his hunger and has withdrawn from the repast. Scarcely has this taken place than they again rush with Savage eagerness on the carcase they had lately quitted, to satiate themselves with the remnants of the feast.’ Humboldt relates as an eye-witness : ‘I can state as fact that the appearance of a king vulture will put to flight a whole company of his more plebeian relatives: it is never a question of resistance.’ I proved to my satisfaction, after several observations, that the same condition of things exists-in Africa between the eared vulture (Otogyps auricularis) and the smaller Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus), and often the same thing occurs among caged birds, when a quarrelsome individual may gratify his love of bullying to its full extent. Their greediness may be considered as the primary cause of this love of power; for greed may be often observed among birds as well as elsewhere.”—P. 103. We seem scarcely acquainted with the epithet parasitical as applied to any particular section of the bird world; we incline to consider the birds mentioned below pirates rather than parasites : they go to work openly and boldly, and display courage, agility and dexterity of the highest order: whether the term pirate prove more acceptable than parasite I will not venture to predict; it certainly seems more descriptive. Be this as it may, the following instances of this propensity are well selected and well told, “ Parasitical birds depend on the weakness or carelessness of other birds to take their prey. A kite (Milvus parasiticus), common in the East, pesters falcons, eagles, and such like, with such bold importunity, that these throw them a portion of their booty. The skuas persecute other gulls to such an extent that they are forced to disgorge the prey they have swallowed, which the former immediately pounce upon. Gannets and terns do the same. ‘These pirates readily distinguish those birds which 3002 THE ZooLtoGist—APRIL, 1872. they can plague with impunity from those which do not yield to their persecutions. When several different species are to be seen living together, and each has to look sharp after his food, one finds numberless opportunities of observing how they seek to over-reach one another. The laughing gulls, in the Hamburg Zoological Gardens, which are allowed their liberty, keep a regular watch over the diving ducks, and often rob them of their booty as soon as they rise to the surface. They narrowly observe those that dive, awaiting the instant of their return to the surface, at which moment if the duck has succeeded in catching a fish, they immediately dash down and try to snatch it away: this they often succeed in doing, for the diving ducks are in the habit always of swallowing their food above water ; and, in spite of repeated diving to gain time, they are generally unsuccessful in their attempts to save their dinner. Coots are as active and quite as impudent as the gulls. I have seen them snatch food out of the very beaks of the swans, which the latter had just brought up from the bottom. These examples which I have quoted are by no means uncommon. Other instances have been observed which are still more remarkable. A friend of mine, a clergyman of undoubted veracity, told me the following charming anecdote of a tame magpie. ‘This bird had its abode among the hens and chickens in the yard, though under rather disagreeable circumstances, owing to its being chased at meal-times by the fowls, &c. In these squabbles the magpie was generally attacked by two hens at once, and, getting the worst of it, had to stand by and see his enemies feed,—unable to partake of the feast himself. This state of things produced a bitter feeling, which soon gave the spur to the natural talent for artfulness and slyness, so inherent in the magpie, and led the bird to substitute cunning for the strength he did not possess. His tactics were these:—he now began the quarrel himself while the fowls were feeding; these, angered at the interruption of their meal, immediately left their food to chastise the intruder, who, however, screaming and aggravating, kept hopping away just in front of the enraged enemy, till he had at last enticed them some distance from their food; then, suddenly taking wing, back flies Mr. Magpie, snaps up a fine piece of potato, which he bears off in triumph, and hides up in his store-house under a barrel. This game is carried on until sufficient provision has been accumulated.’ The goose, so often spoken of as stupid, sometimes gives proof of a character quite the reverse. A gander had taken up his abode in a wheat-field; at first the bird fed with the greatest nonchalance, until discovered and repeatedly driven out; after which he only sought the field and fed when no one was near. Did any person approach he immediately squatted close to the ground without uttering a sound, and even allowed the whole flock of village geese to pass by without betraying himself.”—P. 182. I believe the following account of a domesticated crane has never ee THE ZooLoGist—APRIL, 1872. 8003 before appeared in English costume, but whether this be the case or no it is far too interesting to be omitted, and must raise the crane intellect in our estimation. My own limited experience of Hereford and Welsh bulls would not lead me to suspect the breast of a bull to harbour such a feeling of friendship as is here described ; moreover the voice of those bulls with which I have made more particular acquaintance is shrill, thin, and whistling, and bears exactly the same relation to the sonorous low of a cow as the squeaking of a drake to the loud quack of a duck: I never recollect hearing “ the loud bass voice of a bull.” “