1888-89.] A Few Notes on Bird Life, &-C. 267 



these birds paid daily visits there. Most birds which eat peas 

 are content to peck a hole in the pod and extract the pea, but 

 the hawfinch proceeds in a far more wholesale and effective 

 manner. With his powerful bill he tears the pod from end 

 to end, and clears out all the contents, the pod having the 

 appearance of being cut open with a blunt pair of scissors. 

 Now many persons, on seeing these pods, would at once say, 

 " Oh, these birds are very destructive, and must be de- 

 stroyed." Not so with my kind host : his principle is, " Live, 

 and let live ; " and while we could have daily any quantity of 

 fine marrow-peas for dinner, we could see no reason why the 

 beautiful hawfinches should not participate in the luxury. 

 The hawfinch, like the turtle-dove, is readily distinguished 

 from all other finches, while flying, by the conspicuous white 

 tips to the tail-feathers. Its mode of flight much resembles 

 that of the chaffinch. They are very shy birds, and on the 

 least alarm usually fly to high trees. They remain in England 

 throughout the year, but are of very rare occurrence in Scot- 

 land. They used to breed in my garden in Warwickshire, 

 and fed much in the winter on laurel berries, the stones of 

 which they readily broke with their powerful bills. 



I must now say a few words on kingfishers, the most bril- 

 liant of all our British birds. They are not uncommon in 

 Warwickshire. There is a small stream running through the 

 garden at Stoke, in which I have successfully introduced the 

 Gape pondweed {Aponogdon distachyon). The rich almond 

 scent of the flowers of this plant many of you may know as 

 so delicious in the pond at the Eoyal Botanic Garden. This 

 stream abounds with minnows, and consequently is much fre- 

 quented by kingfishers. One year there was a nest of them 

 in a gravel-pit on the property, at some distance from water. 

 These birds are well protected on the Combe Abbey estate, 

 only three miles distant, and build regularly near the decoy 

 there, and I was informed that they often have two broods in 

 the year, and as many as six young at a time. I scarcely 

 know any bird of more rapid flight than the kingfisher ; and 

 when we consider their dartlike flight, we cannot wonder at 

 the sad fatal accident which befell one of them at Stoke last 

 August, a few days after I left. My friend gives the details 

 in his monthly letter to the papers, thus : " Last Sunday a 



