12 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



of them are brought in every morning. They are very 

 greasy but delicious eating. 



17th. — At the market, Corncrake, Tufted Ducks, Pintail 

 Ducks, Blackbird, Thrush, and Golden Plover. I bought a 

 Common Snipe, which had the outer tail feathers elongated. 

 Compared to the Double Snipe it is quite a rarity. 



20th. — I <7-ot a Smew before breakfast, and in the evening 

 the birdstufifer's wife brought a Jack Snipe, a Brambling, 

 two Siskins, a Whinchat, a Skylark, two Spotted Crakes, a 

 Jay, and a Cuckoo. This Cuckoo, and the one I obtained at 

 St. Petersburgh, were most curious specimens. Both were 

 immature. In the first one the peculiarity consisted in a 

 broad mark of reddish brown like a stain all down the head 

 and back, and two others similar upon the wings. In the 

 second the wings and all the upper surface were mealy- 

 colored.* 



2 1 St. — Paid a final visit to the market and got a drake 

 Gadwall. I had been led to expect great things from the 

 Russian markets. Waxwings and Pine Grosbeaks were to 

 be had for a few " copecks " I was told, and heaps of other 

 rare birds ; but this can only apply to the winter, when I 

 have no doubt they would vie with any in Europe. 



I must not omit to say that the Zoological Cabinet at the 

 University is particularly worth seeing, containing as it does 

 no less than yS'^S^ specimens. The birds are fairly stuffed 

 and in good order. I saw a beautiful skin of the rare Red- 

 breasted Goose, and a mounted one which was not so good. 

 One case was full of bottles of various sizes. Each bottle 

 contained a card on which was gummed a bird's gizzard and 

 its contents — gnats, flies, beetles, etc. The Rook, being of 

 special importance to agriculture, the stomachs of no less 



** The Cuckoo has been stated to have a pouch, but I have not 

 succeeded in finding it, though I have remarked the very gelatinous 

 skin of the neck in some specimens. 



