MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



95 



the bird, and now has it. I have not seen it, but should hardly fancy there 

 could be any mistake in naming it; I will, however, make particular inquiries 

 respecting it, and communicate the result to you. — W. Ferguson, in a letter 

 to the Editor; Glasgow, April 12th., 1851. 



Waxen Chatterer, near Northallerton. — On the 6th. of this month, a flock 

 of eight or ten of these birds, was seen at BuUamoor, about a mile from 

 Northallerton, by a person of the name of Flower; thinking they were curious 

 birds, he borrowed a gun at a farm-house, and obtained one of them. This 

 bird is now in my possession, and is a tolerably fair specimen. Although I 

 have been to the spot where they were seen, two or three times, I have not 

 been able to meet with any traces of them, and so conclude they have left 

 the neighbourhood. — F. R. Gibhes, in a letter to the Editor; Noiihalleiion, 

 April ^bth., 1851. 



The mildness of the late winter would seem to indicate, that other causes 

 than the severity of the weather brought these birds to our shores. — B. R. M. 



Note on a White-winged Rook, (Corvus frugilegus.)-— The Rook has always 

 been considered to be one of the most sociable of aU our British Birds, and 

 one which was fond, not only of the society of its own species, but also of 

 that of Jackdaws, Starlings, and Sparrows. In the autumn of last year, 

 however, I witnessed a circumstance, which seems to deprive the Rook 

 generally, or at any rate the Rooks ' in this neighbourhood, of the credit of 

 possessing such an amiable disposition. I noticed a solitary bird of this species 

 wandering about in the fields in the immediate vicinity of my residence, and 

 seeing it day after day in the same locality, I concluded that it had been 

 disabled by a gunshot wound, or was unable to fly from some other cause. 

 I was, however, mistaken in both these conjectures, for when I approached 

 it, it rose, flew thirty or forty yards, and then alighting again, continued to 

 walk about, silent and solitary. I saw, however, to my surprise, that the 

 feathers of one of its wings were entirely white, and from this I conjectured, 

 rightly, as it turned out, that it had been deserted by its species. A few 

 days after this, a large flock of Rooks alighting in the field in which the 

 solitary bird was, avoided it, and gradually flying off", left the white-winged 

 unfortunate to itself. I have, at times, met with other strangely-marked 

 or coloured birds; but in no case have I seen them neglected and avoided 

 by their own species. Thus, for instance, last year, a pair of Sparrows reared 

 a brood of young ones in some ivy at the back of the house in which I 

 live. Of the four young Sparrows, one was entirely white, two others had 

 white wings and tails, and the remaining bird possessed the ordinary plumage 

 of its species. All four grew up, and the curiously-marked birds were not 

 molested or deserted by their comrades; nor have they left their native locality, 

 as I have seen them all lately, and the white one only yesterday, (March 

 2nd.) in company with other Sparrows. The only way in which I can account 

 for the desertion of the Rook, which I have mentioned, seems to be this: — 



