VARIETY OF THE HAWK. 229 



the back of tlie neck white ; others, without the white head, have a greyish 

 spot on the throat. Sir William Jardine describes one as entirely brown, 

 excepting the forehead and back of the head, throat, sides of the mouth, and 

 tips of the quills, which were white ; another, pale reddish-brown, the upper 

 tail coverts and base of the outer tail-feathers pale yellowish-red, the former 

 shewing a bar ; the back of the head pure white, extending over each eye. I 

 have also mentioned a variety of the Sparrow-Hawk itself perfectly white. 



Again : The white at the occiput in the bird figured, seems to appi'oach to 

 the same feature on the nape of the Sparrow-Hawk. The want of the cross 

 bars on the breast appears to me the only cause of doubt ; but not only do 

 these offer, in the engraving, indications of these, but on the supposition of 

 the bird being a hybrid, their absence would be no difiiculty. 



On the whole, then, I conclude that the bird figured is a variety of the 

 Sparrow-Hawk, an albino, and probably also a hybrid between that species 

 and some other, either the kestrel, or the hobby, or the merlin ; most hkely 

 the first name. This is made the more probable by the consideration of the 

 fact that both species are so commonly kept in confinement; for it seems to 

 me, that the shortness of the claws may be accounted for by the supposition 

 of the bird having been the progeny of two tame hawks of the above-named 

 species, and itself to have made its escape after having been for some time 

 kept in a state, in which, possibly, as it would not require, so it would not 

 further, a full development of those organs of predatory attack. 

 JSFunburnholme Rectory, Hayton, Yorh, Aug. 31, 1855. 



EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE WITH A BROTHER 

 NATURALIST. 



BY F. M, BURTON, ESQ. 



One of the finest parts of N Park, where I have lately been staying, 



consists of a noble avenue of Yews, many of them of vast size, one measur- 

 ing seven yards round thickest part of the trunk. In these trees, which are 

 mostly hollow, I found a large colony of Jackdavvs, from two to three nests 

 in each, some with eggs, others containing young, which on my peering 

 down at them, opened their wide mouths and hissed ; — ^you would have en- 

 joyed the sight. 



I have lately been mounting a couple of Knots T. Canutus, and, in skinning 

 them, found at the top of the craniimi, a very think sort of flesh covering 

 the bone from between the eyes to the beak, like the formation of a second 

 skull, and something resembling soft bone in texture ; I have never met with 

 it before in any other bird. 



Last week, I shot another Short-eared Owl, S. Brachyotos, out of a turnip 

 field. Is this the only one of this tribe that can see and hunt in broad day 



