166 Mr. J. Blackvvall's Ornithological Notes. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XIII. A. 



Fig. 1. Earliest state of branch. 



Fig. 2. Earliest state of polype cell. 



Fig. 3. Earliest state of ovarian ve- 

 sicle. 



Fig. 4. A second state of fig. 1. 



Fig. 5. A second state of fig. 2. 



Fig. 6. A second state of fig. 3. 



Fig. 7. Perfect state of branch fig. 1. 



Chapel Street, Penzance, Dec. 3, 1844. 



Fig. 8. Perfect form of fig. 2. 

 Fig. 9. Perfect form of fig. 3. 

 Fig. 10. Showing a cell of Sert. polg- 



zonlas converted into an 



imperfect branch. 

 Fig. 11. An abortive branch of Sert. 



polyzonlas converted into a 



polype cell. 



XXIII. — Ornithological Notes. By John Blackwall, F.L.S. 



The Osprey, Pandion Haliaetus. 



On the 2nclof November 1844^ Lord Edward Thynne obligingly 

 sent to me a specimen of the osprey, which had been shot by 

 Mr. Griffith Jones of Glyn, on the same day, near the banks of 

 the Lleder, a small river in Caernarvonshire, which flows past the 

 village of Dolwyddelan. It was a male bird, and measm'ed five 

 feet and an inch from tip to tip of the extended wings ; twenty- 

 two inches from the point of the bill to the extremity of the tail ; 

 and weighed three pounds and a quarter, after the remains of a 

 bull-trout, which, when newly captui*ed, must have weighed about 

 two pounds, had been taken from its craw. 



Several days previously to the 2nd of November this bird had 

 been seen flying about the river Conway in the \'icinity of Bettws 

 y Coed, and it is a remarkable fact, that three years since another 

 individual of the same species was killed within a hundred yards 

 of the spot where this was shot. 



The Tawny Owl, Syrnium Aluco. 



A hole in a decayed tree is usually selected by the tawny owl 

 for the reception of its eggs ; but in the neighbourhood of 

 Llanrwst, where this species is numerous and decayed trees are 

 comparatively scarce, it frequently deposits its eggs in an old nest 

 of the carrion crow. 



In May 1844 one of a brood of young owls bred in a crow's 

 nest accidentally fell to the gi*ound before it was fledged, and was 

 as carefully attended to by the parent birds u.nder this change of 

 circumstances as those were which remained in the nest, being 

 abundantly supplied with mice and small birds. When any per- 

 son approached the spot where the young owl stood, one of the 

 parent birds, probably the female, invariably made its appearance, 

 and with looks and gestures expressive of the utmost solicitude 

 reiterated a loud sharp cry, and snapped its mandibles together 

 by way of menacing the unwelcome intruder. 



