18/56] Bird-Gossip. 85 



I very stupidly forgot to put the Snowy Owl's head in the matting, 

 but, perhaps, after all, it might have been smashed. I tied up the 

 Cormorant's throat to stop the bleeding, and I hope he will arrive in 

 good condition for dissection. His digestive apparatus, according to 

 M'Gillivray's method, might form a very curious specimen when blovvn- 

 up and varnished. 



Many thanks for your news about ornithological matters. Poor 

 old Yarrell will be a great loss to the science. It might be as well to 

 inquire who is to be named as referee on doubtful points now that he is 

 gone. Whom should you recommend as a first-rate authority well 

 acquainted with the lore as well as the practice of Ornithology ? The 

 last time I saw Mr. Yarrell was at the Linnaean in June, when he 

 seemed in his usual health, quite a vigorous old age, and 1 hoped to have 

 seen him there for many years to come. 



The Osprey visited us also this autumn. I saw and watched one 

 for half-an-hour or more at the mouth of our harbour about six weeks 

 ago, but perhaps I may have told you already. The Sandpiper tribe 

 have been moderately plentiful, but none in good plumage, and scarcely 

 an adult bird except among the Dunlins. I have not seen a single 

 Godwit in fact this bird is very rare here but Greenshanks, Red- 

 shanks, Grey Plover, Knots, have appeared in even greater numbers than 

 usual. 



The most curious occurrence was perhaps that of the Gray Pha- 

 larope which Mr. Bury shot in September in a marsh ditch. Is not this 

 early ? Does it betoken severe weather in the North ? 



This morning brought me a letter from Julian of Emmanuel ; he is 

 now living at Coblentz on the Rhine, where he appears to have got on 

 famously in the society of the place, where, no doubt, his sporting 

 talents have done much in his favour. His clerical condition has not 

 prevented his joining in deer and boar hunts, and the hero of the Cam- 

 bridge Fens has planted more than one rifle-ball in red and other deer 

 as successfully as he once bored daylight through a cow's ear at Cam- 

 bridge. You must remember that story. 



He reports a great deficiency of small birds in fact, for miles you 

 will scarcely meet a Tomtit. Raptores are more plentiful. He is about 

 to take a chaplaincy in Brittany, which ought to be a famous country 

 for a naturalist. I think its field sports are much above the average of 

 such things in France. 



What you say about Tristram's collecting in Norway suggests the 

 question, does the Great Snipe always breed so far north as to be the 

 associate of Bar-tail Godwit ? I thought it was an eastern bird rather 

 than northern, say from the interior and north of Russia. Your very 

 sincere friend, A G MQRE> 



The visit of the Osprey, above alluded to, was to him 

 a grand ornithological event, and a full account of it is 

 entered in his Journal. The date is September loth. 



