SKETCHES OP EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGV. 249 



distribution, but is much less common in Britain than formerly. 

 Feeds on almost any animal or vegetable matter, fresh or putrid ; 

 Mr. Gould mentions " small Mammalia, eggs, reptiles, dead fish* 

 insects, grain, and carrion ;" and adds that " they have been seen 

 feeding their young out of the nests of a rookery." The habits of 

 the Raven are very generally known ; let us, therefore, pass on to 

 the 



Little Tern, Sterna minuta — Sterne petit, Fr, — Kleine Meer- 

 schwalbe, G. — of which our author presents us with a beautiful fi- 

 gure of the adult, natural size, and one, somewhat less to our liking, 

 of a young bird. It passes the spring and summer on the European 

 coasts, returning, of course, to warmer climes on the approach of 

 the inclement seasons. It is common on our own shores, and Mr. 

 G. has had specimens of it from India and America. " The shingly 

 beach affords them a place of nidification, their eggs being depo- 

 sited in a slight depression among the broken shells just above high- 

 water mark ; and so closely does the colouring of the eggs assimilate 

 with the mingled mass around them, that they escape the casual 

 search of inexperienced eyes." '^ Winged insects, small fishes, and 

 marine animals, form their food : these latter they take from the 

 surface of the water as they fly, but without diving, a power which 

 the Terns do not possess." 



The Common Gadwall, ChauUodus slrepera, Sw. — Canard chi- 

 peau, Fr» — Anatra canapiglia, Tt. — Schwatter Ente, G. Lovely 

 representations of a most elegant species — an adult male and a year- 

 lings three fourths of the living size. Common in the north of Eu- 

 rope, and has been received from the Himalayas ; visits our coasts 

 in tolerably large numbers in spring. The nidification is similar to 

 that of the Common Duck fAnas boschas), and its flesh is consi- 

 dered a delicacy, but of this we ourselves know nothing. The sexes 

 differ less than usual in this family, but still the male is distinguish- 

 ed by the superior brilliancy of his plumage. 



The Garden Tit, Parus hortensis — Mesange charbonniere, Fr, — 

 Kohlmeise, G. The plate contains a pair of these birds — the Great 

 Tit of authors — very fair cuts. Mr. Gould is evidently not aware 

 that this bird possesses a song ; and all the notice we shall now 

 take of the habits of this lively and amusing bird will be by stating, 

 as we have elsewhere done, that the strain *' consists only of two 

 notes, repeated alternately and in rapid succession. The notes are 

 at the interval of a major third from each other."* 



* British Song Birds^ p. 157. 

 VOL. VI. NO. XX. I I 



