70 Short Communications. 



birds and a robin. {Kentish Gazette, as quoted into the Here- 

 ford Journal, May 9. 1832.) [See p. 83.] 



The Alarm-note of Birds universally understood by them. — i 

 In Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary, under the article 

 H Song of Birds," there is the following remark : — " Regard- 

 ing the note of alarm which birds utter on the approach of 

 their natural enemies, whether a hawk, an owl, or a cat, we 

 consider it to be a general language, perfectly understood by 

 all small birds, though each species has a note peculiar to 

 itself." I was, last April, very much pleased at witnessing 

 an illustration of the truth of this opinion. I found a nest of 

 young throstles at the root of a hazel ; and although they 

 could scarcely fly, yet, as they were near a footpath, and the 

 next day was Sunday, when many idle and mischievous lads 

 would be rambling about, Ir thought they would be safer, oufc 

 of their nest than in it; and as I knew that, when so far 

 fledged, if they were once disturbed they would not continue 

 in the nest, I took one out, and made it cry out, and then 

 put it back again, but in one minute not only it but its three 

 companions had disappeared in the long dry grass which was 

 round about. On hearing the cry of their young one, the 

 parent birds set up such a shriek of alarm as brought all the 

 birds in the wood to see what was the matter. I noticed 

 the blackbird, the chaffinch, the titlark, the redbreast, the 

 oxeye [greater titmouse], the blue and marsh titmouse, 

 and the wren, all uttering their cries of alarm and apprehen- 

 sion : even the golden-crested wren, which usually seems to 

 care for nothing, was as forward and as persevering as any of 

 them in expressing its fear on this occasion ; indeed, the only 

 bird which seemed indifferent to all these manifestations of 

 alarm was the creeper, which continued its anxious and in- 

 cessant search for food as it flitted from one tree to another, 

 examining them from root to branch, without ever seeming 

 to understand or care for what seemed to have so much 

 frightened all the others. — T. G. Clitheroe, Lancashire. 

 June 30. 1832. 



A late Brood of young Martins. — Sir, On the 14th of 

 October last, as I was passing by a house near the extremity 

 of this village, I was rather surprised at hearing what I took 

 to be the chuckling twit of young martins (//irundo urbica) ; 

 and, on looking up, I perceived one of their nests under the 

 eaves of the house. 1 say I was surprised at what I heard ; 

 because the martins had entirely disappeared from my view 

 some time before, nor had I been able to see even a single 

 one for some days previously. The person of the house, 

 whose attention was attracted by my standing to gaze at the 



