Zoology, 281 



summer months ; and I have not the least doubt that there are 

 many woods in this kingdom, where the honey buzzard might 

 breed undisturbed and unknow'n. 



The ash-coloured harrier was long supposed to be confined 

 to the south-western parts of England. We have lately dis- 

 covered that it breeds annually in the fens in the north- 

 western part of this county, and most likely throughout the 

 whole extensive level of fen from that, through the Isle of 

 Ely, to Whittlesea Mere. A fine young osprey in its nestling 

 feathers, evident from the down on the wing coverts and 

 scapulars, was shot in this parish on the 17th of August this 

 year ; the plumage is handsome, and more mottled than in 

 the older birds. — J, D. Hoy, Stoke Nayland^ Suffolk^ 

 Nov. 30. 1831. 



Fdlco Tinnunculus l^m, (Kestrel), its Mode of killing Prey. — 

 I observed that a male kestrel, which I kept for some time, 

 invariably crushed the head of the animal I gave him for 

 food with his beak, previously to devouring it. I am not 

 aware whether or not others of the carnivorous tribe adopt 

 the same mode of killing their prey ; from the bird being 

 young when I first had him, I presumed that it is either an 

 instinctive habit of the race, or that he learnt it from the 

 parent birds. This bird frequently breeds in the cliffs on 

 the sea shore, among the gulls and other waterfowl. In the 

 summer of 1830, I shot a female as she flew from her nest, 

 which was situated within a few yards of a nest containing 

 the young of the common gull (iarus canus Lin.), — 

 W, it. Jordan, Lugehay, Teignmouth, Devon, Dec, 4. 1831. 



The Butcher Bird{Ldnius Collurio), — Sir, Whilst walking, 

 in the month of July last, along a narrow lane, my attention 

 was directed to the shrill cries of two or three small birds 

 surrounding the branch of a tree lying by the roadside, and 

 on approaching the spot, to discover the cause of their 

 seeming anger as well as alarm, a species of the butcher 

 bird (the red-backed shrike, or Lanius Collurio of Linnaeus) 

 rose up, with a young, though full-grown, bird of the finch 

 tribe in its beak, which it with difficulty conveyed to a 

 neighbouring tree. On my disturbing the bird, it flew 

 onward, nowise intimidated, with its prey, and, turning a 

 corner of the road, for a time eluded my close pursuit. 

 However, whilst watching, for a minute, at a gateway, I saw 

 the butcher bird flying across an angle of the field at a short 

 distance, and, on my arriving at that part of the hedge whence 

 it flew, I directly discovered its little victim suspended on a 

 dead branch ; its neck being ingeniously transfixed by a thorn. 

 I searched for the nest, but without success ; yet I have no 

 doubt there was one near at hand, as the male butcher 



