96 FEATHERED RESIDENTS IN THE GROUNDS OF TERRICK HOUSE. 



they found the Fitchets in the adjoining hedge. Being overmatched, these now 

 took to flight towards the barn, but the men succeeded in killing four, one 

 of which was that which had been stabbed while on the man's shoulder; under 

 the barn floor they found the remains of nearly twenty fowls, some lately 

 killed with their heads only eaten ofl^. The rain, as I have before stated, had 

 burst in and evidently been the cause of the Polecats decamping in a body; 

 a little beyond the field where they were met, is a rabbit-warren on higher 

 ground, to which they appear to have been making their way. 



The only point on which I have any doubt in the man's account is as 

 to the number. I mean he may in his terror have over-estimated it; he says 

 ''they were more than a dozen; at least sixteen." Now if it was so, the only 

 way of accounting for it is, that there having been a nest in or about the 

 same place the year before, tivo pairs had kept together and bred under this 

 barn floor; for, though I have often observed that a whole litter of Polecats 

 remain with the two old ones through the summer and autumn, yet I have 

 never known an instance of a Polecat producing at a birth more than six 

 or seven, (and I do not think that they breed more than once a year,) though 

 the Ferret, (which will breed with the Polecat, and their offspring I know to 

 be productive;) the Ferret, I say, will sometimes produce ten, and I have heard 

 of- more. 



I am. Rev. Sir, Yours faithfully, 



JOHN MEREDITH. 



Forwarded for "The Naturalist" magazine, by Rev. R. Archer Julian, 

 Laira House, Plymouth, February 9th., 1854. 



A GLANCE AT THE FEATHERED RESIDEINTS IN, 

 AND VISITANTS TO, THE GROUNDS OF TERRIOK HOUSE; 



WITH A FEW REMARKS FROM PERSONAL 

 OBSERVATION UPON THEIR HABITS AND PECULIARITIES. 



BY STEPHEN STONE, ESQ. 

 (Continued from page 28. ) 



The Starling, (Sturnus vulgaris,) occupies ervery available hole under the 

 tiles, or in the thatch of barn or summer-house, where, in a nest loose in 

 construction, and coarse in the materials employed, being often nothing more 

 than a few straws, it lays five or six eggs, varying in colour from pale blue 

 to pure white. I have an egg of this species which bears the following 

 inscription: — "Found in a Carrion Crow's nest, April the 26th., 1852;" this 

 specimen I procured myself on the day and in the situation here recorded, 

 the eggs of the "original proprietor" having been removed the previous day; 

 whether the bird dropped this egg there by accident, or whether she deposited 

 it there with the serious intention of adding others to it, and then proceeding 

 to incubate them, I cannot now say; having most inconsiderately taken pos- 



