Swallows, Hybrid Duck, Flies. 107 



iionary, states that the grasshopper warbler has no long claw 

 behind. In the specimens which I shot, the hind claw was of 

 considerable length. It was from this circumstance, I pre- 

 sume (with deference to the opinion of the learned professor), 

 together with its somewhat similar markings and colour, and, 

 moreover, its habit of rising in the air, and singing or chirp- 

 ing on the wing, that it obtained the appellation of grass- 

 hopper lark. — C. J. Oct. 24. 1835. 



Swallows, an extended String is used as a Perch by certain. 

 — During my stay, last midsummer (1835), down at Dover, 

 I was much amused with watching the numerous flights of 

 swallows that disported daily around the venerable ruins of 

 its ancient castle. My being delayed rather later in the sea- 

 son than I expected, gave me a pleasing opportunity of 

 observing the congregations of these birds before taking their 

 annual departure. One of the chief places selected for their 

 rendezvous (and curious enough, from the apparent incon- 

 veniency of its situation) was a string, which, after running 

 for some considerable distance from the window of the cell of 

 the debtors' prison across the castle moat, is attached to a 

 little bell which overhangs a box, on the side of the road, 

 " for the relief of the poor debtors," &c. It was on this that 

 the swallows perched in considerable numbers, and, as I was 

 then told, have continued so to do for many years past, Habit 

 seems to have entirely reconciled these birds to the oddness 

 of their station, as, every time the string is pulled to implore 

 the " charity of passers by," the birds rise just a few feet in 

 the air, but almost instantly alight again, making all the time 

 a busy chattering. — A. Tulk. Richmond Green. 



[In VI. 4<55, 456., is a notice of two broods of swallows 

 being reared in two nests built, one in one year and one in 

 another, on the crank to which a bell-wire was attached in 

 the passage of an inhabited house ; the bell in use. The 

 young of one of the broods, when they had become full fea- 

 thered, roosted on the bell-wire, or the crank — it is not clear 

 which.] 



A kind of Duck, deemed a wild. Hybrid, between the Pintail 

 Duck and the common Wild Duck. (VIII. 509.) — A case pre- 

 cisely similar occurs in the museum of Mr. Reid, of this town. 

 — F. O. Morris. Doncaster, Sept. 18. 1835. 



{The Woodcock sometimes breeds in Britain. (VIII. 612.) — 

 Many instances are registered in II. 86, 87., communicated 

 by Mr. Bree.] 



Insects. — Flies seen with a Globule of Fluid at the Tip of 

 the Proboscis, and observed alternately to absorb and regorge 

 it : a Notion on their Motive. in doing this. (VII. 531.) — The 



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