THE NATURALIST. 



way, and quitting the tree alighted in one quite close to the bush behind 

 which I lay concealed ; and in a few moments the trees all round me were 

 occupied by the whole flock, and I had an opportunity of observing them 

 at close quarters. It was getting rather late in the afternoon so they had 

 finished feeding, their j^rincipal object seeming to be to find a suitable tree 

 to roost in, though I doubt whether with their pugnacious dispositions 

 they would agree well together in the same. After watching them for 

 some minutes I thought it high time to pick out an individual to shoot, 

 particularly as I saw one or two which were very close to me stand upright 

 on the boughs on which they were perched and look in my direction in a 

 very suspicious manner, so selecting one some distance off, as I wished to 

 kill it clean, I fired and it fell into the thick head of the tree where it hung, 

 having apparently in its death struggle tightly clasped a small branch ; of 

 course 1 fancied the report had frightened all the others away, but when I 

 approached the tree and looked up for the bird I had killed, I was surprised 

 to see several more fly out, at one of which I had an unsuccessful snap 

 shot with my other barrel. I suppose they had remained to sympathize 

 with their dying comrade, or else the discharge of a gun was such a novelty 

 to them that they could not understand it. As the trunk of the tree was 

 entirely destitute of branches for some twenty-five feet from the ground, it 

 was a matter of impossibility to climb it, and I had the mortification of 

 leaving the dead bird behind. Thus ends my adventure with the Azure- 

 Winged Magpies. The next day I succeeded in making a tolerable skin 

 of the only specimen obtained. 



Among other notes made during the time we were in the Tagus in 

 January and February last aie the following ; — ■ 



The Kite (Falco milous, Lin.) This magnificent and elegant bird, 

 which I regret to say may now be looked upon as nearly, if not quite, ex- 

 tinct in the British Isles, was not uncommon in the neighbourhood of 

 Lisbon, and might occasionally be seen soaring at a great height in the 

 clear sky, where their graceful movements could not fail to strike the 

 admiration of merely a casual observer. A pair frequently attended the 

 ship at noon, hovering some distance above the river, and every now and 

 then swooping down and clutching a piece of offal or anything else they 

 might fancy from the surface of the water, which feat they performed with 

 suiprising dexterity, seldom making a miss. The Gulls, (of which there 

 were several species at this time of the day, were always in hundreds astern 

 of the ship on the look out for fragments of biscuit which are swept up 



