PRELIMINARY NOTICES. 



Parus biurmicuSf or Bearded Titmouse, page 220, is called 

 in Kent, the Reed Pheasant. 



FringVla carduelis, or Goldfinch, page 251. It is said, by 

 Mr. Murray, that when this bird is fed exclusively on hemp- 

 seed, the red and yellow colours of the plumage become black. 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. My own observations do not confirm this } it 

 is, I suspect, an occasional effect only of such food. 



Fringilla ccclebs, or Chaffinch, page 252, is sometimes called 

 Whitefinch. 



Turdus torquatus, or Ring Ouzel, page 259, is seen occa- 

 sionally on the Quantock hills in Somersetshire. 



Tardus iliacuSf or Redwing, page 260. A friend J. N. C. 

 Esq. of Trowbridge, on whose report I can rely, informs me 

 that this bird occasionally sings in this country before its depar- 

 ture ill the spring. The Redwing's song will be found in the 

 Pleasures of Ornithology, page 46. 



The Sylvia atricapilla, or Blackcap, page '^79, sings some- 

 times while sitting upon the eggs. See forwards in these preli- 

 minary notices. 



Fringilla domestica, or House Sparrow, page 280. Many 

 nests of this bird were to be seen on the young elms in the 

 Regent's Park, in November 1827. And in the ivy whichcovers 

 the front of a house near Spring Gardens, and which looks into 

 St. James's Park, a colony of the same birds are now domiciled. 

 August 1829. 



Page 28T. The account of the death of so many Geese from 

 plucking them was copied by the Hera'd from the Taunton 

 Courier, a paper distinguished for the superior mental talent 

 with which it is conducted by its proprietor Mr. Marriot, 



Vultur gryphus, or Condor, page 306, 313. A living speci- 

 men of this bir<l is now in the Zoological Gardens ; it is neither 

 so large nor so formidable as it has been conimonly represented. 

 We are not informed, in the Guide to the Gardens, what the age 

 of the specimen is ; it is, we suspect, a young bird. But we 

 still want a record of more facts- concerning it. The gentlemen, 



