Zoology, — Botany. 179 



white, were, like Iier, invariably deaf; while those that had the least speck 

 of colour on their fur, as invariably possessed the usual faculty of hearing. 

 — W. T. Bree. Allesley Rectory^ near Coventry^ May 23. 1828. 



Owls feed their young luith Fish. — Probably it may not be generally 

 known to naturalists, that the common brown owl (^trfx stridula) is in the 

 habit, occasionally at least, of feeding its young with live fish ; a fact which 

 I have ascertained beyond doubt. Some years since several young owls 

 were taken from the nest, and placed in a yew tree in the rectory garden 

 here; in this situation the parent birds repeatedly brought them live fish, 

 bull-heads (Cottus C?6bio) and loch (or loach, Cobites barbatula), which had 

 doubtless been procured from the neighbouring brook, in which these 

 species abound. Since the above period, 1 have, on more than one occa- 

 sion, found the same fish, either whole or in fragments, lying under the 

 trees on which I have observed the young owls to perch after they have 

 left the nest, and where the old birds were accustomed to feed them. It 

 has always been a wonder to me by what method the owl contrives to cap- 

 ture the finny tribes, being apparently a bird peculiarly unfitted for piscatory 

 depredations. If you, or any of your correspondents, better acquainted 

 than myself with the manners and habits of the bird, should be able to 

 solve the difficulty, I should be obliged by their so doing. — Id. 



Owls feed on Fish. — This circumstance is mentioned in Jennings's Orni- 

 tkologia, and corroborates a declaration made by a labourer who was em- 

 ployed to watch the fish-pond in the flower-garden of Bulstrode, about 50years 

 ago. The gold and silver fish had been missed ; the duchess (Margaret, grand- 

 mother of the present Duke of Portland) being a lady of distinguished taste 

 for every curious object of natural history, suspecting that the pond had 

 been poached, ordered Mr. Agnew, the gardener, to employ men to watch. 

 The watchmen detected the robbers, whom they saw alight on the side of 

 the pond, and there waiting the approach of the fish, captured and devoured 

 them ! The common brown owls were the robbers, at least so the men 

 reported ; but they were not generally credited. One of the men, Joseph 

 Newman, who reported the above circumstances, still attests the fact. — 

 J.M. 



The Golden-crested Wren may be taken, by striking the bough upon which 

 it is sitting, sharply, with a stone or stick. The timid bird immediately 

 drops to the ground, and generally dead. As their skins are tender, those 

 who want them for stuffing will find this preferable to using the gun. 

 White remarks, in his Natural History of Selborne, " that the golden-crested 

 wren (^the smallest British bird) will stand unconcerned till you come within 

 three or four yards of it." — JD. S. Bungay, March, 1 828. 



Art. III. Botany. 



Influence of Light on colouring the Leaves of Plants. — It frequently 

 happens in America that clouds and rain obscure the atmosphere for several 

 days together, and that, during this time, buds of entire forests expand 

 themselves into leaves. These leaves assume a pallid hue till the sun ap- 

 pears, when, within the short period of six hours of a clear sky and bright 

 sunshine, their colour is changed to a beautiful green. A writer in SillimanV' 

 Journal mentions a forest on which the sun had not shone during twenty 

 days. The leaves, during this period, had expanded to their full size, but 

 were almost white. One forenoon the sun began to shine in full brightness. 

 " The colour of the forest absolutely changed so fast that we could perceive 

 its progress. By the middle of the afternoon the whole of these extensive 

 forests, many miles in length, presented their usual summer dress." {£^11- 

 fnan*s Jour., xiii. p. 193.) -^ a» — - 



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