you desire me to send you such observations as may occur, I take the liberty of making the following remarks, that you may, according as you think me right or wrong, admit or reject what I here advance, in your intended new edition of the "British Zoology."* The osprey was shot about a year ago at Frin *The substance of the letters addressed to Mr. Pennant about this time were incorporated in the third edition of his "Zoology" which appeared in 1776.-ED. †The Osprey is so rare even in the Grampians and in Caithness and Sutherlandshire that few naturalists can pretend to describe it from observation. They have been shot, however, on the Tweed, on the islands of Loch Lomond, on Loch Tay, and, according to Montagu, in Devon. Incidents like that recorded in the text are not uncommon; one was observed hovering over the Avon, at Aveton Gifford, in April, 1811. After a pause it descended to within fifty yards of the surface of the water, hovered for another short interval, and then precipitated itself into the water with such celerity as to be nearly immersed; rising again in three or four seconds with a trout of moderate size, with which it soared away to a prodigious height. Such occurrences, however, are very rare indeed, and the habits of the bird must be studied in other lands, for it is now rarely observed in this country.-ED. sham-pond, a great lake, at about six miles from hence, while it was sitting on the handle of a plough and devouring a fish: it used to precipitate itself into the water, and so take its prey by surprise. A great ash-coloured butcher-bird was shot last winter in Tisted-park, and a red-backed butcherbird at Selborne: they are rare aves in this county. Crows go in pairs the whole year round. * Cornish choughs abound, and breed on Beachy Head and on all the cliffs of the Sussex coast. The common wild pigeon, or stock-dove, is a bird of passage in the south of England, seldom appearing till towards the end of November; is usually the latest winter-bird of passage. Before our beechen woods were so much destroyed, we had myriads of them, reaching in strings for a mile together as they went out in a morning to feed.† They leave us early in spring; where do they breed? The people of Hampshire and Sussex call the missel-bird the storm-cock, because it sings early * The Common Crow, Corvus corone, as well as the Hooded Crow, Corvus cornix, are both solitary birds, but both live much in pairs, except when food is very abundant, then several individuals may be seen together. The common carrion crow is most common in the South of England.—ED. †The Stock-dove, Columba anas, Linn. has not been observed in Scotland, and is not much known in the North of England. Selby describes it as a constant inhabitant of the woods, breeding in the hollows of old trees; associating in winter in large flocks with the ring-dove, C. palumbus. In Norfolk it is found during the spring and summer months on the heaths, building its nest among deserted rabbit-burrows or under furze-bushes on the commons.-ED. The Missel-thrush, Turdus viscivorus, remains all the year, but the native race is supposed to be joined by others from over the sea. Their song is strong, shrill, and monotonous. They are quarrelsome among themselves, and tyrants to their congeners, driving them from their feeding-places with harsh screams.-ED. in the spring in blowing showery weather; its song often commences with the year: with us it builds much in orchards. A gentleman assures me he has taken the nests of ring-ousels on Dartmoor: they build in banks on the sides of streams. Titlarks not only sing sweetly as they sit on trees, but also as they play and toy about on the wing; and particularly while they are descending, and sometimes as they stand on the ground. Adanson's testimony seems to me to be a very poor evidence that European swallows migrate during our winter to Senegal: he does not talk at all like an ornithologist; and probably saw only the swallows of that country, which I know build within Governor O'Hara's hall against the roof. Had he known European swallows, would he not have mentioned the species? + The house-swallow washes by dropping into the water as it flies: this species appears commonly about a week before the house-martin, and about ten or twelve days before the swift. In 1772 there were young house-martins in their nest till October the twenty-third. *The Ring-ousel, Turdus torquatus, builds its nest under a bush, or on the face of a rough bank, or among fragments of rock near to some running stream.-ED. † Adanson's statement that swallows migrate to the African coast is abundantly borne out by those of other travellers; but it is only a confirmation of the old writers who generally mention it as wintering there. The Rhodian Boys had a festival when they carried about young swallows; when they sung: "He comes! he comes! who loves to hear The swallow hither comes to rest, His sable wing and snowy breast."-ED. The swift appears about ten or twelve days later than the house-swallow: viz. about the twentyfourth or twenty-sixth of April. Whin-chats and stone-chatters stay with us the whole year.* Some wheat-ears continue with us the winter through. Wagtails of all sorts, remain with us all the winter.t Bullfinches, when fed on hempseed, often become wholly black. We have vast flocks of female chaffinches all the winter, with hardly any males among them. It is probable that both these species are migratory; for while the Stone-chat, Saxicola rubicula, is met with in small numbers all the year, both in Scotland and England, it is not of frequent occurrence in either; and the Whin-chat, S. rubretra, is very rarely seen in Scotland before the end of April, when they soon get very generally distributed over the upland pastures, hopping about on the ground, or flitting on the wing from place to place, now pursuing its insect prey, now occupying the topmost twig of some bush, jerking its body and tail, and uttering its short sharp note of chat, chat. While the Stone-chat flits about with a direct flight, perches also on a twig, jerks its body and tail, uttering at intervals its sharp snack, snack, which becomes in winter more like the cry of cheet, cheet.-ED. † Of the three species known as British, two probably confine themselves to a northern and southern emigration in our own island. The third (White and Gray Wagtail), Motacilla alba, Mr. Gould was surprised to find was only found out of Britain in Norway and Sweden, although so abundant with us at all seasons. In March the migratory movement northward commences; many, however, remaining. In October they again turn southwards, leaving a considerable number of stragglers behind them.-ED. The Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert remarks on this subject that the oil of the hemp has probably this effect on the plumage; adding that he has never found bread and hemp scalded affect the colour of birds, probably because the oil so diluted loses its power. The head of the painted finch of Carolina, which is of a rich blue, loses its brilliancy with the first moult. When in confinement the linnet and redpole lose When you say that in breeding time the cocksnipes make a bleating noise, and I a drumming sound (perhaps I should have rather said a humming), I suspect we mean the same thing. However, while they are playing about on the wing they certainly make a loud piping with their mouths: but whether that bleating or humming is ventriloquous, or proceeds from the motion of their wings, I cannot say; * but this I know, that when this noise happens the bird is always descending, and his wings are violently agitated. Soon after the lapwings have done breeding they congregate, and leaving the moors and marshes, betake themselves to downs and sheep walks. Two years ago last spring the little auk was found alive and unhurt, but fluttering and unable to rise, in a lane a few miles from Alresford, where there is a great lake: it was kept awhile, but died. I saw young teals taken alive in the ponds of Wolmer-forest in the beginning of July last, along with flappers, or young wild ducks. All the swallow kind sip their water as they sweep over the face of pools or rivers: like Virgil's bees, they drink flying; "flumina summa libant." In their red colour in a similar manner. Birds that change their colour with the seasons usually put on their bright garb in the warm season. "I attribute," he adds, "the different colours of foreign specimens to a higher temperature."-ED. *This seems to be the result of a sportive action in the snipe. "After rising with its natural cry of pee wit, pee wit, pee wit, it drops obliquely through the air,by keeping the wings motionless," says Herbert; but turning the individual quills sideways as the bars of a Venetian blind are turned, by some muscular action, in the course of which the drumming sound is produced." Having descended to a certain point the feathers are readjusted, and it again moves on without noise.-ED. |