102 BiriDS OCCURRING NEAR RICHMOND. 



and sometimes iu crevices of old walls. They are furnished with much the 

 same kind of tail as the Woodpeckers — strong and elastic, which supports 

 them in their ascent of trees, walls, and palings; they do not perforate the 

 bark like the Woodpeckers, and are therefore provided with a beak widely 

 different in construction; being very slender, rather long, and considerably 

 curved; which enables them to reach insects behind the bark, or round a 

 slight angle, which, with a short and straight beak they would not be capable 

 of doing. How beautifully is every part of every creature adapted to the 

 respective habits of such creature! Throughout the whole of creation, even 

 in its most minute portions, the marks of Infinite Wisdom are plainly visible. 

 Nothing, however small, however apparently insignificant, but has these marks 

 indelibly stamped thereon. Well may we exclaim with the Psalmist, — 

 "How manifold are Thy works, Lord, in wisdom hast Thou made them all." 



In the composition of the nest we find one rather odd sort of material, 

 namjly, small pieces of light decayed wood, commonly called touchwood. It 

 is generally a very slight affiiir, — a few slender dry twigs, sundry pieces of 

 the aforesaid touchwood, with the addition of hair and feathers as a lining. 

 The eggs, five or six in number, are so like those of the Blue Titmouse, that 

 one might easily be mistaken in their identity, although the ground of the 

 Creeper's may be of a more shining white, and the specks a trifle deeper in 

 colour than those of the Titmouse. 



(To he continiicd.) 



A NOTICE OF SOME OP THE 

 BIRDS OCCURRING NEAR RICHMOND, YORKSHIRE 



BY H. SMURTHWAITE, ESQ. 

 {Continued from page 83^) 



Thb following list contains the remainder of the birds which are found about 

 this town; the number being, owing to the formation of the surrounding 

 country, but scanty, and the species, generally speaking, not rare. 



The Ringdove,) Golnmha j^ctlumbics,) is extremely abundant, chiefly inhabiting 

 young plantations of firs and larches, placing its loosely constructed nest very 

 frequently in the branches of the former tree, occasionally in a holly bush, 

 and not uncommonly in a low yew or "ivy mantled" ash. The height at 

 which the nest is placed from the ground, varies from four to twenty feet, 

 but I am inclined to think eight or nine to be about the average. 



The Pheasant, {Phasianus Colchicus,) and the Common Partridge, {Perdix 

 cinerea,) are tolerably plentiful; I lately saw in the cabinet of a friend, a 

 curious variety of the egg of the former bird; in colour it much resembled 

 that of the Common Heron — bluish green, the surface very smooth and glossy, 

 and the egg itself unusually rotund. The nest from which it was taken contained 



