TO RUSSIA AND BACK. 9 



Buntings, Pine Grosbeaks, an Oxeye Titmouse, a Long- 

 tailed Titmouse, a Pied Flycatcher, and five Storks. I 

 bought a Sparrovvhawk* and a Cuckoo, which I skinned 

 the following day, together with an Oystercatcher, which an 

 English resident had shot on lake Ladoga. From its 

 brown back, and from the edgings to the feathers, I have 

 no doubt that it is a bird of the year. 



On the 8th of September I travelled by a second-class 

 carriage to Moscow. I thought it much more comfortable 

 than an English first-class, and a perfect banquet was pro- 

 vided at the stations where we stopped for refreshment. 



The only birds seen on the way were a few Wood 

 Pigeonsf and Magpies, a Rook, and an old Buzzard perched 

 upon a pole. 



I was unfortunately just too late for a meeting of Zoolo- 

 gists and scientific men, in which I might have heard some 

 interesting questions discussed. 



As soon as I arrived I hastened to the live-bird market, 

 where I found for sale the Common Sandpiper, Hawfinch, 

 Crested Titmouse and Shorelark ; and the next day at 

 some other shops outside the wall of the " Kitai Gorod," a 

 Golden Oriole, a Missel Thrush, and a Raven ; and in the 

 game market the following dead birds — Goshawk (in an 

 interesting state of change), Capercaillie, Hazel Grouse, 



^' On the 31st of August, 1873, a young cock Sparrowhawk was made 

 a prisoner in our bantam-house, having dashed through the top netting, 

 of which the mesh is only two and a half inches in diameter, It must 

 have been a squeeze, but he could have come in no other way. 



i* November 20th, 1871, a gamekeeper in Norfolk drew my attention 

 to a Silver-fir tree with two leaders, near to a Pheasant-feeder, (a wooden 

 contrivance for corn,) remarking that he knew this deformity and many 

 others like it to have been caused by Wood Pigeons coming after the 

 corn, and settling on the tops of the trees when they were young and 

 breaking them thus. 



