466 PRACTICAL ORNITHOLOGY. 



Orn. Lacerta agilis — Who would have thought to find it 

 here ? I have it, and will keep it as a memorial. 



Phys. A dead crow. Is it not Corvus Corone 2 It will 

 make a good skull. 



Aud. See that little Hawk, how beautiftilly it glides along 

 in its rapid slanting descent. What a splendid figure the small 

 thing cuts ! It very much resembles our Pigeon Hawk. What 

 is it? 



Orn. The Merlin, so like your Pigeon Hawk, as you say, 

 that some individuals of both species can hardly be distin- 

 guished. Indeed I think the authors of the Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana have mistaken the one for the other. There goes 

 its mate. Their cries very much resemble those of the Kes- 

 trel. Hear the Curlews respond to them. These birds are 

 very numerous on the hills and moors of this part of the coun- 

 try, as you may have observed. 



Aud. Their cry is not at all like that of our Long-billed 

 Curlew — Ah — there now, that undulating whistle is just such 

 as that of our bird. Where does it breed 1 



Orn. On the moors. I once came upon a nest over the way ' 

 there. It was in the midst of a tuft of heath and sweet gale, 

 in a wet, or rather spongy place, and we came so close to it 

 that one of us had almost stepped upon the bird, which, on its 

 escaping, we imagined at first to be a hare. The Curlew lays 

 four remarkably large olive-coloured eggs, spotted with dusky, 

 in a shallow nest, formed of some straws and twigs, laid in a 

 superficial cavity. But now we have gained the ridge of the 

 hills, and there before us is a long moor covered with carices, 

 rushes, and heath. How beautifully the Lapwings fly ! It is 

 strange that a bird so nearly allied to the Plovers and Tringas 

 should have the wings so broad and rounded, while theirs 

 are so pointed. Have you no birds in America analogous to 

 this? 



Aud. Not one. It is a beautiful and gentle creature, not- 

 withstanding its peevish wail. Don't shoot it Physiophilus ; 

 it has a nest, and if you kill it you probably destroy five birds, 

 or prevent four from being hatched. I hate to see birds shot 

 when breedinof. 



