76 NOTES ON BIRDS. 



I have already noticed the brown plumage of the young starling, but 

 in adult buds there is some variety, owing chiefly to age, but sometimes 

 I think it is accidental, some having the plumage more glossy than 

 others ; these are the old ones ; but some have no white specks on the 

 throat and neck, which are very much glossed with purple. At the 

 British Museum there is a handsome variety, were it not so badly 

 preserved ; the birds there are certainly a disgrace to the institution- 

 The bill of the young starling is always dark horn colour, but in the 

 old bird it is sometimes yellow ; is this the effect of age or season ? I 

 have never seen the yellow bill in winter. 



The common sparrow, though an artful bird, is by no means shy ; 

 there was a nest on an elder-tree in St. James's Park, very few feet 

 from the ground, near which a sentry was constantly on duty, besides 

 the numerous visiters who were passing and repassing beneath it all 

 day. In Corinthian capitals, and in bassi-relievi it frequently builds, 

 though quite as frequently in trees, and it is probably only the scarcity 

 of trees in towns, which makes the bird appear so fond of building 

 in houses, &c. At the Zoological Gardens a few years ago, this bird 

 had constructed her nest between the wire roof of the Condor's 

 cage and the thatching of the building, by no means alarmed at the 

 presence of her formidable neighbour, through whose apartment she 

 frequently flew, secure in her insignificance. Sparrows both wash and 

 dust. 



The greater redpoles (JFringilla cannabina) and the grey linnet 

 (-F. linotd) are one and the same bird, but the twite (F. montana) is 

 a distinct species, the upper tail coverts of which are red, but this is 

 seldom obtained after moulting in the cage ; it has a ludicrous chatter- 

 ing note, quite unworthy the name of a song. 



White notices vast flocks of hen-chaffinches at Selborne about 

 Christmas. In the North of England I have seen them about the end 

 of September, probably on their way southward, but near London the 

 males are as common as the hens in winter. 



On the 22nd of last September I noticed some black caps, feeding 

 eagerly on the fruit of the elder-tree. Was not this rather late in the 

 year for them * ? 



Does the cuckoo leave us so early as has been said ? I am persuaded 



* At Bonn on'^the Rhine I had a nest of young blackcaps in my garden in 

 September. ED. 



