516 Short Communications: — 



plumage, be is often kept by gentlemen on their estates, 

 greatly to the annoyance of the gardener, who often complains 

 of the great destruction he causes in the flower-beds. If this 

 be really a well established fact in the natural history of the 

 bird, it is possible that the peahen, on this occasion, may 

 have mistaken the eel for a serpent; and, in this way, we 

 can easily account for its dispute with the heron : but I do 

 not find that either Buffon or Bewick mention this peculiar 

 trait in their history of the bird ; therefore I should be glad to 

 learn if any one has ever witnessed this peculiar characteristic. 



— M. Chalmers, M.D. Hull, Sept 6. 1833, 



The Species of Thrush, whose Migration is described by W. L. 

 of Selkirkshire, in p. 218., is the Redwing (Turdus Wiacus L.) 



— The species of thrush, whose habits and manners W. L. 

 has, in p. 218., accurately described, and which be has con- 

 ceived to be a species " not generally noticed by naturalists," 

 is merely the common redwing, a resident species in the ex- 

 treme north of Scotland and in the isles, and a regular win- 

 ter visiter in South Britain. I cannot, however, admit (with 

 W. L.) that their music equals that of the mavis, or song thrush 

 (T. musicus L.) : they have, undoubtedly, one or two very 

 pleasing and mellow notes, but their song in general is cer- 

 tainly very inferior to that of the T. musicus. A flock of these 

 birds lingered in this neighbourhood, last spring [1833], until 

 the close of the first week in May : thirty or forty of them 

 were in the habit, every fine morning, of congregating on a 

 large spreading oak, growing in the middle of a field ; and 

 used to pour forth their strains, in concert, for hours toge- 

 ther. The same habit may likewise be sometimes observed in 

 the song thrush, during the first months of the year, only 

 the assemblage is never so numerous. A small flock of red- 

 wings were observed here on the 6th of September, this season 

 (1833); earlier, by three months, than the first appearance 

 of this species in 1832. They have, however, not been noticed 

 since. — Edward Blyth. Tooting, Surrey, Sept, 23. 1833. 



The Habits of the Jackdaw, (p. 394.) — I can bear testi- 

 mony to the accuracy of Mr. Waterton's observations on the 

 friendly and uninterrupted intercourse which exists between 

 the rook and the jackdaw. Near Denney Abbey, the remains 

 of an old monastery in Cambridgeshire, are a number of old 

 pollards, hollow through age, which have been allowed to re- 

 main on accountof the young wood which their crowns produce, 

 and u hich is used for making partition fences, dead hedges, &c. 

 Adjoining these pollards is a grove of elm trees, on which the 

 rooks build and rear their young, while the jackdaws rear theirs 

 in the sheltered cavities of the pollards. The latter and the 



