MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 105 



Hen-harriers breed on the ground, and seem never to settle 

 on trees. 



When redstarts shake their tails they move them horizontally, 

 as dogs do when they fawn : the tail of a wagtail, when in motion, 

 bobs up and down like that of a jaded horse.* 



Hedge-sparrows have a remarkable flirt with their wings in 

 breeding-time ; as soon as frosty mornings come they make a 

 very plaintive piping noise. 



Many birds which become silent about Midsummer reassume 

 their notes again in September ; as the thrush, blackbird, wood- 

 lark, willow-wren, &c. ; hence August is by much the most mute 

 month, the spring, summer, and autumn through. Are birds 

 induced to sing again because the temperament of autumn re- 

 sembles that of spring ? 



Linnaeus ranges plants geographically ; palms inhabit the tro- 

 pics, grasses the temperate zones, and mosses and lichens the 

 polar circles ; no doubt animals may be classed in the same 

 manner with propriety. 



House-sparrows build under eaves in the spring ; as the wea- 

 ther becomes hotter they get out for coolness, and nest in plum- 

 trees and apple-trees. These birds have been known sometimes 

 to build in rooks' nests, and sometimes in the forks of boughs 

 under rooks' nests. 



As my neighbour was housing a rick he observed that his 

 dogs devoured all the little red mice that they could catch, but 



rmed, would seem to be distinct, but has not been very satisfactorily made out. The largest 



nd. commonest species is the sharp-nosed eel (A- aciitirostris) , which has been known to attain a 



igth of six feet three inches, but more usually averages from two to three feet. Its appearance 



too well known to need description. The broad-nosed eel (A. latirostris) is also plentiful, and 



once distinguishable from the last by means of the character from which it has been named; 



s also smaller, and has not been known to exceed five pounds in weight, whereas the other 



sometimes attains to thirty pounds. Mr. Yarrell has observed important structural distinctions 



"in the size and character of the bones of the head and vertebrae, those of the present species 



being nearly as large again as the same parts of the A- acutirostris in examples of the same length.'' 



A. mediorostris, the Hampshire species, is much smaller than either, with a head of intermediate 



form, as its name imports. It is also more slender and elongated, in proportion to its depth and 



thickness, than either of the preceding species, in addition to which it presents some osteo- 



logical peculiarities, and is said to differ from the others in being more diurnal in its habits. It 



rarely exceeds half a pound in weight, and is provincially tenned the snig eel. The grig eel is 



described by Mrs. Bowditch to be the smallest of the genus, and " is caught plentifully in the 



Thames, but more especially in Berkshire and Oxfordshire." Mr. Yarrell's investigations leave 



little or no doubt that eels are oviparous. ED. 



* With all deference to Mr. White, he is decidedly wrong in this particular, as I have many 

 times had occasion to observe, both by keeping redstarts in confinement and watching them in the 

 wild state through a glass. They move the tail perpendicularly, but not at all in the manner of 

 a wagtail, the motion being rapid and of slight extent, and repeated after every movement of the 

 bird ; or the tail sometimes hangs and shakes as if quite loose and ready to fall off, which latter 

 1 have not observed in the black species (phanimra tithys), though I have the former. It is a 

 habit very characteristic of the genus. ED. 



