^ologyz 65 



' The Nightingale. — ^^This "poet bird/' ikfotacilla Xusclnia, sometimes 

 displays an eccentric and novel taste in the materials of her nest. One in- 

 teresting specimen of this kind was wholly constructed of skeleton leaves. 

 — J. Murray. 



Presentiment in a Goose. — An old goose, that had been for a fortnight 

 •hatching in a farmer's kitchen, was perceived, on a sudden, to be taken 

 violently ill. She soon after left the nest, and repaired to an Out-house 

 where there there was a young goose of the first year, which she brought 

 with her into the kitchen. The young one immediately scrambled into the 

 old one's nest, sat, hatched, and afterwards brought up the brood. The 

 old goose, as soon as the young one had taken her place, sat down by the 

 side of the nest, and shortly after died. As the young goose had never'been 

 in the habit of entering the kitchen before, I know of no way of.accounting 

 for this fact than by supposing that the old one had some way of communi- 

 cating her thoughts and anxieties, which the other was perfectly able to 

 understand. A sister of mine, who witnessed the. transaction, gave me the 

 information in the evening of the very day it happened. — C. A. Brew, 

 Ennis, July 9. 1828. 



Desertion of Geese. — I do not know if the following circumstance be of 

 frequent occurrence ; if not, it may interest the readers of the Magazine of 

 Natural History. I was walking along the beaoh which lies between the 

 rivers Dee and Don, one morning, about twelve months ago. It was blowing 

 a gale from N.W., and a cloudy thick atmosphere. I was attracted by a 

 loud cackling, seemingly overhead, and, on looking to windward, I observed 

 a large flock of birds. From the awkward motion of their wings, I was con- 

 'vinced they could not be wild ducks, and they seemed to be impelled rather 

 by the wind than their own exertions. They continued their course to the 

 seaward, and I lost sight of them in the haze. Next day Ihad a letter from 



a friend in the county, stating that Mrs. of 's duck-pond had been 



deserted the former morning by her thirty geese, which had all taken flight, 

 and had riot since been heard of. — A. B. Aberdeen^ Nov.XZ. 1828. 



Flying Geese. — In confirmation of H. S.'soiotice of a curious duck, and 

 the fifteen geese mentioned in your Magazine (Vol. I. p. 37*7.), allow me to 

 state that it is very common for domestic geese to take flights to a consi- 

 derable distance. Some time ago, my father had a large flock, which fed on 

 high ground not visible from the house. They were lessened, as occasion 

 required, to about six ; these were fetched home every night, for some 

 - weeks ; and very frequently, on seeing the house from the top of the hill, 

 they would take wing and fly homewards, making a circuit of about a mile. 

 ' On one occasion they were nearly alighting at a poird of water at the next 

 ; farm-house, instead of a similar one near home j they soon, however, dis- 

 covered their mistake, and raised themselves in the air to nearly as great a 

 height as before, alighted at their own water, and were at it long before 

 their driver, notwithstanding that the latter mostly went in a direct line. 

 This is the more singular, because these geese were considered heavy and 

 fat, and nearly ready for making into good old-fashioned goose-pie. Query. 

 Was it not owing to their wanting water, and at the top of the hill, which 

 elevated the geese's spirits (if I may use the terra), and made them try to 

 accomplish that, on their wings, soo7ier than they could do on their legs? — 

 , T. F. Near Huddersfield, Dec. 12. 1828. 



Fishes, and Mode of preparing them. — At Lake Ilmen, near Valdai, they 

 have a fish so like a herring, that it is called the fresh-water herring, and 

 also another fish said to resemble a smelt. They have a mode of preparing 

 them for a distant market, by putting them into ovens of a moderate tem- 

 perature, and gradually but thoroughly drying them. {Capt. Joneses Travels 

 in Norway.) Why may we not naturalise this fish, and adopt the same 

 mode of curing other fresh-water fishes ? — Rusticus in Urbe. 

 VOL.II.— No. 6. F 



