XX INTRODUCTION. 



showed that the bill had been red when first killed. Gould will 

 not believe that they are ever killed in this country with the 

 black head, but allowed that a great number might be obtained 

 in the young or winter plumage. You ought to think yourself 

 lucky in getting your summer one, as they are certainly 

 extremely rare in that dress. I visited the market place here 

 to-day, but found only vegetables there, it not being market day, 

 but in a gameshop I saw one Eing Ouzel, one Mountain Finch, 

 several Wood and Skylarks, and dozens of Redivings with a few 



Thrushes and Fieldfares I saw nothing on the river 



Scheldt but a few Gulls which were very tame ; and nothing in 

 crossing the Channel from Dover to Calais, save a few Kittiwakes, 

 Razorbills, and Guillemots, two or three Gannets and some 

 immense flocks of Scoters ; but on landing at Calais the first 

 thing which attracted my attention was a pair of Crested Larks, 

 which pitched on the opposite quay to where I was. A great 

 many Larks were apparently crossing the channel. A long way 

 from land a Purple Sandpiper or Phalarope crossed the steamer's 

 bows " 



The next letter was written from Paris on November 1st, 

 1868, and thus commences : " After posting my last letter to 

 you, we started for Brussels, which we found to be a 

 very fine city, though not to be compared with Paris in 

 any way. It contains, besides some fine picture galleries, 

 a capital museum of Natural History, and a very nice poultry 

 market. In the museum I was delighted to find a specimen of 

 the Great Auk, tho' badly stuffed, and I fear rather moth-eaten 

 about the tail, nevertheless they seem to know its value as it is 

 enclosed under a glass shade inside the regular glazed cases which 

 contain the other birds. This I find is the case with all the very 

 rare birds in the British Museum. I made a sketch of this bird, 

 as I did of the one at Neuchatel. The Museimi also contains 

 Little Gulls in every stage of plumage, and the adult with 

 black head appears to have had a dark red biU. It is particularly 

 rich in skeletons and stuffed specimens of the Cetacea, one or two 



