ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



Having been much interested by a singular instance of parental affection and 

 sagacity of a Chaffinch (Fringilla spiza), I have thought that the anecdote might 

 not be unacceptable to the readers of The Naturalist, for wbom I accordingly 

 transcribe it :— " This day week, I think it was, (says Mr. Maceroni, in a letter 

 dated June 16,) it blew almost a gale of wind. A Chaffinch's nest, placed near 

 the top of a high Common Escule, (Esculus vulgaris,)* in the front of the house, 

 was damaged, and one of the young, nearly able to fly, fell to the ground, which I 

 caught. It was old enough to eat of its own accord ; and I kept it perched on 

 a hen coop until this morning, when it contrived to get into the roof of a barn, 

 and whilst I was attempting to get it down, surrounded at the time by four 

 or five children, who were, of course, making a great outcry lest the little orphan 

 should be lost, the mother flew down from the other side of the house, and with- 

 out the least hesitation, seized her little one by the leg and carried it off to the top 

 of the high tree from which it had fallen a week before. I regard this as rather a 

 curious circumstance ; the power of wing in the old bird being not the least re- 

 markable of its interesting features." — The following somewhat similar instance 

 of sagacity is related by Wilson of the Ruffed Grous ( Tetrao umbellus) : — 

 " The young leave the nest as soon as hatched, and are directed by the cluck of the 

 mother, very much in the manner of the Common Fowl ( Gallus variabilis). On 

 being surprised she exhibits all the distress and affectionate manoeuvres of the 

 Common Colin ( Colinia vulgaris, Nuttal ; Perdix virginiana of Latham), and 

 of most [many] other birds, to lead you away from the spot. I once started 

 a female Ruffed Grous with a single young one, seemingly only a few days old ; 

 there might have been more, but I observed only this one. The mother fluttered 

 before me for a moment ; but, suddenly darting towards the young one, seized it 

 in her bill, and flew off along the surface through the woods with great steadiness 

 and rapidity till she was beyond my sight, leaving me in great surprise at the inci- 

 dent." If I mistake not, Audubon mentions a parallel case of an American species 

 of Nightjar. Other birds, as the wild Ring Duck (Anas boschas, Lin.), the 

 Tufted Woodard ( Dendronessa spansa, Sw.), and the Common Gallinule ( Gal- 

 linula chloropus, Will.), must also occasionally carry their young in their bills, as 

 they are all known to build more or less frequently many feet high in trees, &c. 

 It is said that the Common Rusticol (Rusticolla vulgaris, Vieill.), has been seen 

 to transfer its young by flight. 



Turning from young birds to nests, I shall here notice an assertion made by a 



" The trees in the Escule family (Esculacem) are vulgarly confounded under the name 

 Horse Chesnut : they have, however, no affinity with the Chesnut (Castanea), which is in 

 the Hazel family (Corylaceas), which, among other genera, contains the greatest glories of 

 the British forest, the Oak and the Beech. 



