150 



THE OS PREY. 



waters have produced some supposed patriarchs, 

 one of which is in Norwicli Museum. Naumaiin 

 alludes to Swans fmm 50 to 101) years old, and 

 Broderip, in his 'Zooloj^-ical Recreations,' after 

 citing- a Swan at Shejjperton on the Thames 

 supposed to be over 100, and another of 50, 

 quotes from the 'Morning- Post' the follow- 

 ing: — "The beginning of last week [July 18+0] 

 an exceedingly well-known character departed 

 this life, namely Old Jack, the gigantic and ven- 

 erable Swan with which the public have been so 

 long- acquainted on the canal in the enclosure (if 

 St. James's Park, at the advanced age of To 

 years. Old Jack was hatched some time about 

 the year 1770 on the piece of water attached to 

 Buckinham House." 



It is placed on record that a [Mute] Swan 

 died at Alkmaar, a town near Amsterdam, in 

 1675, which bore a metal collar on which was 

 inscribed the date "1573," indicating a life of 

 102 years. After considerable search to verify 

 this story, it has been satisfactorily traced by 

 Mr. F. E. Blaauw and Mr. Bruinvis to the 

 original record in the 'Chronyk van Nedenblik 

 door Dirk Burger van Schoorl' (1702). 



At the ancient Swannery at Abliotsbury, in 

 Dorsetshire, the Mute Swans have the reputa- 

 tion of being- capable of living 150 years, but it 

 does not appear that any attempt has been 

 made to prove it by ringing them by the present 

 Earl or his predecessors. Cygmis alraliis and 

 C. biicci>ia/or have been kept to 18. and C. 

 musicus to 12 years. The oldest Duck I shall 

 have to quote was only 2^», but Icelanders have 

 asserted that Eider Ducks have been known to 

 live 100 vears (Olafsen and Povelsen). 



DiOMEDEID.S. 



I am indebted to Mr. H. Griinvold of The 

 Natural History Museum for news of an Alba- 

 tross of abiiut 4<i, on the authority of a Japanese 

 newspaper called the 'Hiog-o News,' and for a 

 translation of the narrative of its capture. The 

 Albatro?.s was taken by the ship 'Duchess of 

 Argyll,' Capt. Hoard, near Cape Horn, with a 

 compass-case attached to its neck, containing 

 the inf<uMnation that it had been previously 

 caught in the middle of the North Atlantic by 

 an American vessel, the "Columbus,' on May 8, 

 1840. A new case was affixed, and it was again 

 dated and released, in January or February, 

 1887. As has been already mentioned, nimnedca 

 nigripts has the power of going a very long 

 time without food. 



The kind assistance of Dr. liiittikofer, Mr. 

 Meade-Waldo, Mr. Gronvold, and Dr. A. G. 

 Butler has been rendered to enable me to com- 

 pile the following List of 75 species, and I am 

 especiallv indebted to Dr. Paul Leverkiihn ,of 

 Sofia, Mr. F. E. Blaauw, of Hilversum, C.M.Z-S., 

 and Prof. Newton for their help. Where the 

 words "still alive" are added, they mean living 

 at the ag-e here given. The se.\ has been added 

 wherever obtainable, because Brehm think.s 

 there are more male birds than females, and it 

 may be that Nature, to compensate the balance, 

 gives longer life to the female. The three 

 oldest birds of which the sex is known were 

 females, viz: — 9. .-inscr doDiesticiis. of 80, ?, 

 Bubo iiiii-viinus, of fi8; 9- Coraropsis z'asa, of 

 54, 



Name of Species. 



Song-Thrush 



Tindiis iiiiisinis. 



Blackbird 



Blue Thrush 



A/oii/ito/a rytiuiis. 



Nightingale 



Daiilias liisciiiia. 



House-Martin 



Clitliilou iiybiia. 



White-headed Manikin. 

 Uluiiia maja. 



Goldfinch 



Carduelis fU-gans. 



Canary 



Sfiimis caiiaiins. 



Brown Linnet 



Linota cannabina. 



Number 



of 

 years old. 



17 



15 



20"^ 

 still alive. 



J> 20 



24 



25 



15 

 10 



9 18 

 c? 17 



20 

 18 

 17 



6 17 

 14 



Authoritv. 



A. G. Butler, P.Z.S. 

 Mr. I5ilhaiii Cromer. 



Thompson's 'Birds of Ireland,' 

 i. p. U.S. 

 Ditto, i. p. 147. 



H. A. Macpherson.r r'Avicula,' 

 1807. p. 147. 



Dr. Bechstein's 'Cage-birds,' p. 

 363. 

 Ditto ditto 



'Zoologist,' 1865, p. 9725. 



'Zoologist.' 1876. p. 4057. 



A. G. Butler, F.Z.S. 

 Ditto 



C. Gesner, Hist. Av. (1555). 

 'Birds of Ireland,' iii. p. 467. 



Zool. 1886, p. 478. 



J. Macklev, Norwich. 



'The Field,' June 8, 1867. 



Zool. 188(1, p. 478. 

 G. Thirkettle. 



