Queries and Aris^ers* 101 



The grasshopper warbler, more generally known by the name of grass- 

 hopper lark, is plentiful in several counties, but scarce about London ; and 

 I would willingly remunerate any person that would procure and send me 

 a living male bird, or nest, of either or both. I have now eleven species of 

 the interesting migratory warblers, all in good health, and several of them 

 in full song; four handsome male blackcaps, a wheatear, and whinchat, that 

 sing nearly all day long ; the redstart, and larger and lesser whitethroats, 

 also sing occasically, but are not yet in full song: the greater part of 

 them, if the weather is mild, will be in full song about Christmas. I am. 

 Sir, yours truly, — R. Sweet. Pomona PlacCy King^s Roadj near Fidham, 

 Nov.28. 1828. 



A dark-looking Water Bird. — Sir, Very early one morning, in Septem- 

 ber, 1826, as a friend and myself were paddling about in a small boat in the 

 harbour of Fowey, Cornwall, we spied a dark-looking bird on the water at 

 the mouth of a *' pill" or creek. We contrived to get within shot, and 

 my friend fired and shot it dead. On taking it into the boat, I was much 

 delighted at finding that I had got a strange bird. My companion was 

 certain that he had killed a tame duck belonging to a neighbouring miller. 

 I, however, carried it home, and forthwith made a sketch of it, and pur- 

 posed measuring and examining it more minutely. A cat, however, fore- 

 stalled me, and having borne it away to her own museum, I was obliged to 

 rest contented with the rough drawing. Enclosed is a copy of my original 

 figure (^g. 21.}, which is so far accurate as probably to enable some of the 



readers of your excellent Magazine to inform me what the bird is, it being 

 a novelty to me. From the long body, roundness of the tail, and situation 

 of the nostrils (in the middle of the bill), it might be placed in the genus 

 M6rgus ; while, from the form of the bill and leg, it seems to belong to 

 the ^'nas. The bill, it will be observed, is remarkably large, and the fore- 

 head slopes more gradually to it than is usually the case in the duck tribe. 

 This bird was about the size of the wigeon (^^nas Penelope), and, I should 

 imagine, had not arrived to its perfect plumage, by the uncertain form of 

 the white spots on the cheek. I am, Sir, yours, &c. — J. L — s» Liskeard 

 Vicarage, Cornwall, Dec. 10. 1828. 



A Crow, which I saw last Sunday on Barham Downs, had the wings, back, 

 and belly of a slate colour, the wings tipped with black, and the head of a 

 glossy jet black. Pray, Sir, was it a distinct species, or only a variety ? — 

 P. H. Kingston Rectory, near Canterbury, Nov. 22. 1828. 



A Swallow in November. — On Sunday last, Nov. 23., I saw a swallow 

 fly over our garden, as strong and apparently in as good health as at mid- 

 summer. The day was very fine, and the flies were plentiful ; but how did 

 it subsist during the severe frosty days that were past ? — -B. Sweet. Po- 

 mona Place ^ KingU Road, near Fulhayyi, Nov^ 28. 1828. 



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