EFFECTS OK SEVERE WEATHEH ON UIBDNDINID^. 11)9 



backed Shrike sitting as unconcernedly as possible on the top of a small 

 silver fir tree, from which she flew across tlie path in front of mo to another 

 small shrub opposite; when I was enabled to detect following her, and 

 making a strange chattering noise, a Whitethroat, Blue Tit, Cole Tit, Great 

 Tit, and a male and female Chaffinch. This occurrence reminded me very 

 forcibly at tlie time of a group of Birds I saw in the Great Exliibition of 

 1851, called mobbing the Owl, where a Tawny Owl was represented as being 

 disturbed by a quantity of small Birds by which it was surrounded. 



Singular situation of a Rook's nest. The last two years a few Rooks have 

 taken to building their nests on the tops of some spruce fir trees in Woburn 

 Park. There ai'e plenty of elm trees close to them, and in one of them there 

 is generally a score of nests every year, and plenty of room in other trees for 

 them to build in; yet these Birds prefer building in the spruce firs, although 

 their nests would be much safer in the elms. 



White Wild Hyacinth. (Hyaeinthus non-scriptus.) In answer to your cor- 

 respondent, S. Hyle, Esq., in vol. iv. of The Naturalist, p. 190, I beg to say, 

 that I have frequently found white specimens of the Wild Hyacinth in this 

 neighbourhood ; they are by no means plentiful, but I have seen several this 

 Spring. We have the blue ones growing in countless numbers in all the 

 woods round us; they are quite a picture to look at; in some places nothing 

 but a mass of blue to be seen, relieved here and there with beds of the Lily 

 of the Valley, {Gonvallaria majalis,) with its delicate white flowers and exqui- 

 site perfume, which makes a walk in our woods at this time of the year quite 

 a treat ; I believe the woods round us are considered to contain a greater 

 variety of wild flowers than are to be found elsewhere in the county. 



Woburn, July Wth, 1855. 



NOTE ON THE LEECH. 



The other evening, on looking over Davy's veiy interesting "Account of 

 Ceylon," I read as follows ; and shall feel much obliged to any correspondent 

 of The Naturalist, who will be so kind as to inform me of the proper name 

 of the Leech in question, or any other information respecting the same : 

 " I allude to the Leech. This animal varies much in its dimensions. The 

 longest are seldom more than half an inch long, in a state of rest; the 

 smallest are minute indeed. It is broadest behind, and tapers towards the 

 fore-part; above, it is roundish; below, flat. Its colour varies from brown to 

 light brown. It is marked with three yellow lines, extending from one 

 side to another ; one dorsal and central, the others lateral. The substance 

 of this animal is nearly half transparent ; and in consequence, its internal 

 structure may be seen pretty distinctly. It is very active, and moves with 

 great rapidity, and is said at times to spring. Its powers of contraction and 



