Miscellaneous. 453 



that collection, which is now before me, is so similar to A. vulgaris 

 (although I believe a distinct species), that most botanists would, 

 upon a cursory inspection, refer it to that plant. It has not the most 

 distant resemblance to A. conjuncta or A. alpina. The figure of ^. 

 fissa in Sturm's ' Deutsch. FL' 66. 12. represents the plant of Tausch, 

 to which also correspond specimens named A. fissa by Reichenbach 

 (' Fl. exsic/ 876) and by Shuttleworth. It is perhaps unnecessary 

 to go further to convince my friend Mr. Trevelyan and the readers 

 of the 'Annals,' that A. fissa (Schumm.) is not A- conjuncta (Bab.), 

 although plate 2101 of ' Fl. Dan.' is probably intended to represent it. 

 Should however more proof be required, it can be at once produced. 



I may take this opportunity of stating, that during the late sum- 

 mer I examined Gatesgarth Pass, Cumberland, for this plant with 

 great care, but totally without success. — Charles C, Babington. 



St. John's College, Cambridge, Oct. 28, 1843. 



assumption of the male plumage by a female partridge. 

 Powerstock Vicarage, Bridport, Dorset, Oct. 30, 1843. 



Mr.Yarrell in his 'History of British Birds' mentions two instances 

 of thirty- one eggs having been found in a partridge's nest, and ob- 

 serves, " there is little doubt in these cases that more than one bird 

 had laid eggs in the same nest." It may not perhaps be deemed un- 

 worthy of record that a partridge this year laid thirty- six eggs in my 

 aviary, out of which thirty young birds were hatched by two domes- 

 tic hens. As the history of my birds is rather curious, I will venture 

 to relate it. 



Late in the autumn before last (1841) a young partridge, about 

 three weeks old, was caught by a boy and turned into my aviary, in 

 which I had then a young ring-dove that could not rise from the floor, 

 as the feathers of one of its wings had been clipped. The young 

 bird immediately sought the protection of the Cushat and nestled 

 under her wing. 



After moulting our bird appeared in the distinctive plumage of 

 a male, with the rich chestnut-coloured horseshoe-shaped patch on 

 the breast. Early in the following spring we were much pleased by 

 hearing the call of our bird answered repeatedly from a field adjoin- 

 ing our garden. In a short time we observed a wild bird to visit the 

 aviary every evening. We soon succeeded in capturing this stranger, 

 as we discovered that it generally roosted among the ivy with which 

 the building is partly covered. To our surprise our prisoner proved 

 to be a male, and we were now at a loss to account for the perseve- 

 rance with which it sought the society of our bird. 



In the following moulting season (the autumn of 1842) our tame 

 bird however lost its chestnut-coloured crescent and the triangular 

 patch of naked red skin above the ear-coverts, and assumed the plu- 

 mage of a female ; the doubts which we now entertained as to the 

 sex of our favourite were cleared up early in the spring when she 

 began to scratch together materials for her rude nest, in which she 

 continued to lay an egg daily for more than five weeks. She how- 

 ever showed no disposition to sit. 



It seems that the circumstance of this female bird having been 



