OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 35 1 



devour the worms, etc., that are turned up by that instrument. 

 The redbreast attends the gardener when digging his borders ; 

 and will, with great familiarity and tameness, pick out the 

 worms, almost close to his spade, as I have frequently seen. 

 Starlings and magpies very often sit on the backs of sheep and 

 deer to pick out their ticks. MARKWICK. 



WRYNECK. These birds appear on the grass plots and 

 walks ; they walk a little as well as hop, and thrust their bills 

 into the turf, in quest, I conclude, of ants, which are their 

 food. While they hold their bills in the grass, they draw out 

 their prey with their tongues, which are so long as to be coiled 

 round their heads. WHITE. 



GROSSBEAK. Mr. B. shot a cock grossbeak which he had 

 observed to haunt his garden for more than a fortnight. I 

 began to accuse this bird of making sad havoc among the buds 

 of the cherries, gooseberries, and wall fruit of all the neighbor- 

 ing 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 ornithologists call this bird cocco- 

 thraustes, i.e. berry-breaker, because 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 Eng- 

 land, and only in winter. WHITE. 



I have never seen this rare bird but during the severest cold 

 of the hardest winters; at which season of the year I have had 

 in my possession two or three that were killed in this neighbor- 

 hood in different years. MARKWICK. 



NOTES 



1 The pheasants run into equal danger when they roost in the trees ; for, 

 although they are secure from ground vermin, yet do they often fall victims 

 to the poacher, who can see them plainly against the sky. G. C. D. 



2 Hen pheasants usually weigh only two pounds ten ounces. G. W. 



3 The landrail is common in Shropshire, and I have found three or four 

 nests in a single hayfield. One of these birds was once brought in, in a 



