Birds. 519 



fruit ; no doubt of it : but the injury they commit in this way is 

 more than compensated by the good services they perform in 

 another ; and I think, on the whole, we should be no gainers by 

 destroying them. Were any of our common birds (or, indeed, 

 other animals) to multiply to an unusual extent, and increase 

 out of due proportion, they would immediately become a pest 

 and a nuisance; on the other hand, were they to be anni- 

 hilated, and the race to become extinct, or nearly so, we 

 should soon miss their services, and be equally inconvenienced, 

 because in either case the balance of nature would be destroyed, 

 I am, Sir, yours, &c. — W. T. Bree. Allesley Rectory, 

 March 14. 1833. 



A remarkable Variety of the Peewit was shot last winter in 

 the county of Kjldare, Ireland. It had been observed, for 

 some days before, in a flock of peewits ; and, having attracted 

 attention, from the difference of its plumage, it was followed 

 till it was procured. Its colour, both above and below, is of 

 a dark cinereous grey, almost approaching to mouse colour ; 

 the scapulars are glossed with dark green reflections, as in the 

 common one, and tipped with white. The crest is Orily 1 in. 

 long, instead of 2jin., the usual length. The only differences 

 which I could observe in its shape are these : —-The v bill :a 

 trifle longer, and hardly so broad ; the bone of the forehead, 

 which, in the common one, forms almost an angle with the 

 top of the head, is, in the present one, lower, and more evenly 

 rounded : the head is also a little broader between the eyes . 

 The neck seems longer, as also do the thigh-bones ; but, as it 

 was preserved when it came into my possession, it is impos- 

 sible now to determine this point with any accuracy. It was 

 preserved by Mr. J. Wall, who has the charge of the museum 

 of the Dublin Society, Kildare Street, from whom I procured 

 it. I take this opportunity of recommending him strongly, 

 as the best preserver of foreign or native birds that I am 

 acquainted with. — T. K. Toomavara, Ireland, Oct. 4. 1833. 



Instances of Feathers' found in the Stomach in the larger 

 Species of Grebe. What End in the Economy of Digestion do 

 these Feathers subserve ? — In Vol. V. p. 733. a remark occurs 

 as to the food of the larger grebes, and the circumstance of 

 their stomach being generally filled with feathers. Two in- 

 stances of this case came to my notice last winter. On De- 

 cember 8. 1832, one was brought to me which had been shot 

 on Lough Derg, on the Shannon ; a female, and, I think, a 

 young one, of the Podiceps rubricollis. It weighed 20 ounces. 

 On opening it, I found the crop and first stomach perfectly 

 empty ; but the second stomach, or gizzard, was quite full of 

 feathers, and one or two back-bones of some small fish. Again, 



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