Birds, 151 



the coin by locking the room door. It was then the spring 

 season of the year. In the course of a few days, she was 

 surprised to find that " Jack " had laid two or three eggs, 

 and went on laying until it had laid the usual number. The 

 bird was thus, for the first time, discovered to be a female. 

 Though, in her rambles abroad, she had met with a sweetheart, 

 her old quarters of peace and plenty were preferred to all the 

 privileges of precarious freedom. From whatever excursions 

 she might choose to take during the day, she always returned 

 home in proper roosting time at night. 



A caged Fieldfare, — In the same apartment, and, like 

 Miss Jack, perfectly contented, was a caged fieldfare, singing 

 sweetly, it being summer time, I was not a little pleased to 

 see a winter bird so happy in a strange land ; but more sur- 

 prised was I to know that it is a bird of song. In its wild 

 state, during its hybernal visit, we have only one or two notes, 

 and those somewhat discordant, uttered as a call to its com- 

 panions ; but the notes of this feathered stranger resembled 

 the woodlark*s, subdued and warbling. It was originally 

 brought to the kind-hearted governess, as a pensioner, with 

 a gunshot wound. She doctored and recovered it ; and the 

 bird, like its jetty friend Jenny Daw, is quite satisfied with its 

 " settlement." — L, Booker, LL.D, Dudley, Jan. 7. 1834. : 



A Ferruginous Duck or Ruddy Goose {A^nas rutila, Fauna 

 Suecica) was shot, a few days since, at Iken, near Orford [on 

 the coast of Suffolk]. It is in the possession of Mr. Manning, 

 chemist, Woodbridge. {Ipswich Journal, Jan, 11 , 1834.) — 

 TV, B, C, [See VI. 141.] 



The Account of the Oyster- catcher (VI. 151-2.) reminded 

 me of a circumstance relating to that bird which was entered 

 in my notes during a visit at Ramsgate in 1830, and which 

 is an additional proof of its capability of swimming and 

 diving. 



On November 12., in that year, being out shooting with 

 a friend, we beat round Pegwell Bay, crossed the Sandwich 

 Haven in a ferry-boat, and proceeded along the shore till 

 opposite the blockade station-house beyond Shellness, when 

 an oyster-catcher flew past, which I shot at, and winged. It 

 fell in the water, and swam boldly. The shore was flat and 

 sandy, the sea calm and shallow, and the tide gently ebbing. 

 Having no dog with us, my friend, anxious to secure the 

 bird, actually undressed, and took the water after it, as it was 

 making out to sea ; on coming up, he pooped to catch it, 

 but it eluded his grasp by diving, and was lost to view till it 

 emerged at a distance of several yards from him. He re- 

 peated the attempt two or three times, but with no better 



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