66 PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 



"Bournemouth, February ii^th, 1889. 

 " The quail is a partial resident in all countries in 

 which it is found, certainly in the British Islands and 

 Spain, Greece and North Africa. We have had some 

 sharp spells of frost, then about ten days of bright, 

 mild weather, birds singing and some of them nesting, 

 then, during the last week, a tremendous snowstorm. 

 Snow never lies here, but I hear of eight inches at 

 Lilford and six in London ; and in Holland dams have 

 burst and flooded great extents of country. Now we 

 have a cold and pouring wet thaw. I heard of two 

 whoopers yesterday at Lilford. The death of Rudolph, 

 of Austria, is a very great loss to ornithology, and one of 

 the most shocking tragedies I ever heard of. I knew 

 him slightly. Every one is full of those never-to-be- 

 sufficiently-condemned county councils, and the most 

 shameful persecution of the Bishop of Lincoln. I fear 

 that the Columba bollii * that you were good enough to 

 give me are all cocks, as I do not hear of any sign of 

 their pairing or nesting. In fact, two of them set upon 

 and bullied the third to such an extent that they had to 

 be separated. I have some interesting desert birds alive 

 here in the shape of two thick-billed larks {Ramphocoris 

 clot-bey') and an Algerian horned lark {Otocorys bilopha). 

 They came from Oran to the Zoological Gardens with 



* Bolle's Pigeon {Columba bollii), a true wood-pigeon, confined to 

 the virgin laurel forests of the Western Canary Islands, its natural 

 food being solely the fruit of these trees. — E. G. B. M-W. 



