8 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



I passed some birds in the ante-room recently set up, 

 which I rather think were from Finland. They were the 

 Curlew Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Swifts, etc. Also a 

 Short-eared Owl just brought in and skinned, and a 

 Hen Harrier, which was no doubt killed in the environs. 

 There were specimens of both in the collection marked 

 St. Petersburgh. In another ante-room there was an artist 

 at work painting a Ruff, with Gould's " Birds of Europe " 

 to help him. I must not omit to mention seeing some eggs 

 of the Waxen Chatterer,* with the following testimony to 

 an Englishman's perseverance : — 



" In memoriam Johannis WoUey, quern in regionibus Europce, 

 hyperboreis naturae arcanorum per multos annos studiosum, fames, 

 frigus, bellum, non deterrerunt, hoec ampelidis garruloe ova musoeo." 



On the 3rd I saw the Zoological Gardens, and bought a 

 curious muff made of nine necks of Black-throated Divers 

 in their fullest plumage. The gardens are really very poor 

 for a great place like St. Petersburgh. They are a private 

 undertaking, and the property of a lady. Wild Tree 

 Sparrows were flying in and out among the bushes. By 

 the Rumiantsoff Obelisk I saw a Greater Whitethroat {?). 



Going again to the Museum, the taxidermist, Monsieur 

 Wosnessensky, showed me a Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivo- 

 rus, L.) just set up. I likewise saw a couple of young 

 Cranes, which had been reared by hand. They were a 

 yellowish brown colour; the crown of the head not bare; 

 the iris dark. 



Before going away I paid my respects to another live- 

 bird market, where I saw Redwings, Redstarts, Snow 



*^ The Waxen Chatterer goes as far south as Algeria. Professor 

 Newton, in his fourth edition of Yarrell, " B. B.," says indeed that it 

 does not cross the Mediterranean, but both he and Mr. Dresser must 

 have overlooked what Loche says : — " De passage en Algerie de loin 

 en loin." (Cat. des Mammiferes, etc., p. 88.) 



