48 NATURAL HISTORY 
in the day; and seemed disposed to build in my 
outlet, but were frighted and persecuted by idle boys, 
who never let them be at rest. 
Three grosbeaks (loxia coccothraustes) appeared 
some years ago in my fields, in the winter, one of 
which I shot. Since that, now and then one is oc- 
casionally seen in the same dead season.* 
A crossbill (loxia curvirostra) was killed last year 
in this neighbourhood. 
Our streams, which are small, and rise only at 
the end of the village, yield nothing but the bull’s- 
head or miller’s-thumb (gobius fluviatilis capitatus), 
the trout (érudta fluviatilis), the eel (anguilla), the 
lampern (/ampetra parva et fluviatilis), and the 
stickleback (pisciculus aculeatus). 
We are twenty miles from the sea, and almost 
as many from a great river, and therefore see but 
little of seabirds. As to wild fowls, we have a few 
teams of ducks bred up in the moors where the 
snipes dwell; and multitudes of widgeons and teals, 
in hard weather, frequent our lakes in the forest. 
Having some acquaintance with a tame brown 
owl, I find that it casts up the fur of mice and the 
feathers of birds in pellets, after the manner of 
* From Miscellaneous Observations. ‘ Mr. B. shot a cock 
grosbeak which he had observed to haunt his garden for more 
than a fortnight. I began to accuse this bird of making sad 
havdc among the buds of the cherries, gooseberries, and wall- 
fruit of all the neighbouring orchards. Upon opening its crop or 
craw, no buds were to be seen, but a mass of kernels of the stones 
of fruits. Mr. B. observed that this bird frequented the spot 
where plum-trees grow, and that he had seen it with somewhat 
hard in its mouth, which it broke with difficulty: these were the 
stones of damsons. The Latin name signifies berry-breaker, be- 
cause with its large horny beak it cracks and breaks the shells | 
of stone-fruits for the sake of the seed or kernel. Birds of this — 
sort are rarely seen in England, and only in winter. ed 
