728 Retrospective Criticism, 



poor Billy Wix, flying from the locker, with a load in his 

 claws ; pop went the gun, down came the owl ; when, oh ! 

 dire to relate, instead of the young pigeon, which my friend's 

 imagination had loaded him with, it was an old barn rat, nearly 

 dead : proof of the utility of these birds. — Henry Turner. 

 Botanic Garden, Bury St, Edmunds, July 17. 1832. 



The Common Buzzard (Buteo vulgaris Fleming), in captivity 

 hatching the Eggs of the common Fowl. (p. 383, 384.) — I have 

 at the present moment [May 8. 1832] a female buzzard, 

 showing all the signs of wanting to sit described p. 384. by 

 my friend Mr. Yarrell ; but, as she has a male bird with her, 

 I shall not gratify her by giving her hen's eggs to sit upon, in 

 the hope that she will herself lay eggs for this purpose. — 

 Thomas Allis. Yorh,Uh of the Sth month {May), 1832. 



In my last letter I mentioned having a female buzzard then 

 showing an inclination for laying. She did lay one Qgg. She 

 was confined in a place in which she had, as companions, another 

 female buzzard, a male buzzard, four kites, three kestrels, and 

 two owls. Five or six days after she had laid the e,gg, as I saw 

 no probability of her laying a second, and as I had never noticed 

 the male bird to pay her any attentions, and consequently appre- 

 hended (hat her one egg would prove barren, I added four 

 fowls' eggs to her own, that she might sit. She immediately 

 began sitting ; but in little more than a week I missed her own 

 egg, and could never discover any trace of it, or guess what had 

 become of it. She however continued sitting on the fowls' eggs; 

 and I was surprised to find that, although I had never observed 

 any previous attentions on the part of the ipale bird, during 

 her incubation he became very attentive to her, and mostly 

 took his stand close by the nest, and when she went off to 

 feed, he took her place on the eggs. At the end of three 

 w^feks, three out of the four eggs were hatched. And now came 

 the difficulty ; for although I could fully depend for the pro- 

 tection of her young charge on her affection, I could place no 

 such dependence on her predaceous companions, each of which 

 would have gladly made a meal off one of her chicks at the 

 first opportunity. I therefore removed them to another situ-' 

 atioh ; but her affection for her old residence overcame that she 

 flit for her foster-progeny, of whom she took not the slightest 

 ridtlfc;^. I removed them back to their old nest, when they 

 w6i*e all but dead with cold. She immediately resumed her 

 care over them : next day, as it was time for the chicks to be 

 running about, and there was no dependence to be placed on 

 their Tceeping longer in the nest, I removed her to a partition 

 of her own habitatidn ; but here the same scene was reenacted. 

 Thdbgh shfeha'd^a quarter ji^art of the whol^ enclosure- for ^tbe 



