Recent Ornithuluyical Publications. 85 



until about the middle of October^ when a decided diminution 

 begins to take place. Sometimes large, but more generally small 

 Hocks are seen passing at a considerable height overhead, and 

 the frequenters of the brakes and turnip-fields grow scarcer. By 

 the end of November, hardly an example ordinarily appears. It 

 is true that sometimes, even in severe vv^eather, an individual or 

 so may be found here and there, leading a solitary life in some 

 sheltered hedge-bottom or thick plantation which may afford 

 conditions of existence more favourable than are elsewhere to be 

 met with ; but this is quite an exceptional occurrence. Towards 

 the end of January or beginning of February, their return com- 

 mences. They reappear at first slowly and singly; but as spring 

 advances, in considerable abundance and without interruption, 

 until, in the height of the breeding-season, they by far out- 

 number their more stay-at-home cousins the Blackbirds. 



I do not suppose for a moment that these facts are similar all 

 over England; indeed the testimony of many of my friends assures 

 me to the contrary. Still I am induced to think that by con- 

 stant and accurate observers some migratory tendency is to be 

 detected in other districts ; and as we are often told that the 

 subject of British ornithology is exhausted (an assertion I much 

 doubt), I venture to call the attention of naturalists to this point 

 as one on which it certainly cannot be said at present that we 

 have '' too much light/' 



Elveden, December 1859. 



IX. — Recent Ornithological Publications. 



1. English Publications. 



The second part of the ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society 

 for this year contains all the papers read up to the end of the 

 last meeting before the summer vacation, amongst which are 

 many on ornithology, by Dr. Adams, Mr. Bartlett, Dr. Bennett, 

 and Messrs. Gould, G. R. Gray, and Sclater. The Illustrations 

 of Birds are four in number, all drawn by Wolf. 



The December number of the ' Annals and Magazine of Na- 

 tural History' (vol. iv. |). 167) records the occurrence on the 



