Zoology. SS 



are easily tamed, and easily preserved, if kept warm enough in winter. — ♦ 

 J. M, May 6. 1831. 



The same writer has additional remarks on this subject in the British 

 Farmer's Magazine for August, 1831, p. 347, 348., which we here present. 

 " Tine-tare is a most troublesome weed both in the field and the barn. In 

 the first, it literally strangles the crop ; in the second, it causes much 

 additional labour in sifting, to pass its seeds, and to bring its unbroken pods 

 to the surface to be picked off. Of this weed it is truly said, that the seeds 

 lie dormant in the soil for years, as they only vegetate in moist warm 

 summers. Turtle doves are particularly fond of this small pulse, frequent- 

 ing the stubbles in the autumn where the tares have grown ; and again in 

 May, when these stubbles are getting into order for turnips, or are pre- 

 viously sowed with oats or other crop." — J. D. 



The Pied Flycatcher y or Goldfinch (Muscicapa luctuosa*), is said by all 

 the books to be common nowhere ; perhaps it is nowhere numerous : but 

 from my earliest years I have seen one or two, and this year, in company 

 with your fanciful correspondent Von Osdat, three pairs, among the old 

 oaks, on the slope close to the western walls of that stern and august man- 

 sion. Chirk Castle, where the rocks overhang the rapid Ceiriog, exactly 

 where OiTa's Dike crosses that river. I also even see them, in their season, 

 among the venerable and quiet shades of Vale-Crucis Abbey ; and in the year 

 1823 1 saw several in Gowbarrow Park, Cumberland, on the banks ofUlls- 

 water, as I perambulated that delicious country with my friend, that indus- 

 trious and scientific naturalist, John E. Bowman, Esq. F.L.S. For a de- 

 scription, I refer to my lamented friend Bewick, whOy in his modest diffi- 

 dence of his own surprising powers, has given two spirited cuts j both of 

 which are correct and striking attitudes the bird often assumes. Its man- 

 ners somewhat resemble those of the M. Grisoluy by snapping flies, and re- 

 turning again and again to the same stand. It has two notes, soft but very 

 audible, and not unmelodious, which it repeats alternately for eight or ten 

 times frequently. Its song is extremely like that of the redstart, and for 

 which, by an unornithic ear it might be readily mistaken, as it was even by 

 my accurate friend Wood, till I pointed out a slight diiference of the rough 

 curl in the middle of the short, but often resumed, song : and, like that 

 bird, it has a very favourite habit of just alighting a moment on the ground, 

 or hastily and insecurely on the side of a tree, picking an insect, and 

 instantly returning to the same perch. Early in every April, I observe a 

 pair in my orchard, where they play and feed for a day or two, probably on 

 their way to Wales. They are readily disting-uished, particulai'ly the male, 

 by the very striking contrast of extreme black and white; a magpie in 

 miniature, with a white spot, as it were the last snowdrop, very conspicuous 

 on the forehead. I am sure they return annually to the same holes in ths 

 old oaks, 



** whose boughs are moss'd with age. 



And high tops bald with dry antiquity;" 



and, I think, by the very same line, as I generally see them in or near the 

 very same trees in my orchard on their passage : and so well do I know 

 when and where to watch for them, that one April, going to show my 

 amiable friend Tudor (your Bean-bee Tudor, Vol. IV. p. 94.), while adjust- 

 ing the focus of my small ornithoscope upon a post, the then-arrived bird 



* Muscicapa luctuosa. It is seldom I like to see the good old names of 

 Linnaeus changed, who calls this bird Atricapilla : his cap, indeed, is not 

 entii'ely black; and the new specific term, luctuosa, better depicts the 

 fiomewhat mournful bearing of the bird, both in plumage and motion. 



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