161 

 ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



BY THE BEV. R. PYE ALINGTON. 



In a former number of The Naturalist I had occasion to mention that my 

 brother, Mr. Henry Alington Pye, of Louth, had enclosed from the sea a 

 considerable portion of land, in the parish of North Summercoats. Trees, of 

 course, grow but slowly upon it, probably from the quantity of salt still in 

 the ground, but a few ashes have sprung up, — fifty or sixty ; at present tliey 

 are not thicker than a man's wrist, perhaps eighteen to twenty feet high. 

 This year they were thinned out, the branches left on the ground. A pair of 

 rooks were noticed busy at work ; not being disturbed, they quickly ran up a 

 nest. Day after day others continued to arrive, until every one of these 

 small trees were hooded with a nest. So low are the trees, that, with a pole, 

 every nest might be knocked down ; and two were placed so near to the 

 ground that a tail man might almost have jmt his hand into them; these two 

 nests were destroyed by the other rooks. 



Remembering the remarks of my nephew, (the Rev. W. W. Cooper, West 

 Rasen,) in The Naturalist, in his article on the Rook, I went to examine 

 this new and unexpected colony, and found, as I anticipated, every bird — 

 " birds of the last year ; " that is, not one had the white skin which is so con- 

 spicuous at the base of the bill in older birds. What could have determined 

 these youngsters so suddenly to fix upon this wild and solitary situation ? No 

 tree or rookery within miles ; exposed to the cutting N. E. blasts which 

 during this spring at least, have blown from the Gennan Ocean! More 

 favourable localities might surely have been found, nearer home. Could the 

 material ready at hand have tempted them ? Or rather may it not have been 

 one of those wonderful interpositions of Providence, for good, of which we 

 are having continual proofs ? New land when first cropped, I believe, is 

 peculiarly liable to the ravages of the Wire Worm ; here, then, has been 

 placed ready at hand, unexpectedly, a scourge and destroyer of that most 

 terrible pest; who, in return for the destruction of a little grain, when other 

 food fails, will in the end, prove, whatever man may say, that an invisible 

 hand is ever stretched out for his protection. Let the indiscriminate 

 destroyer of the Rook read the'account given in Yarrell's British Birds, vol. 

 ii. pp. 93-90. 



Richard Thorold, Esq., of Weelsby House, in this county, had a few years 

 ago two Emus sent to him, a present from Australia, by his nephcAv, A. Grant, 

 Esq. Last year one of the birds laid some eggs, but deserting them, it was 

 supposed that possibly the two birds might be of one sex ; but this year the 

 same bird has again laid, and when I last heard, was sitting " close," — I 

 believe that is the proper expression ; should there be any result, I M'ill 

 write more particulars. In spite of the cold spring, she must have com- 

 menced to lay her eggs in March ; the nest is placed at the bottom of a 



