7880 Birds. 



perfectly naked and perfectly blind. I need scarcely mention, except for the edifica- 

 tion of the few non-natuialisls who may peruse these lines, that the female hare makes 

 no nest; that she tears no fleck from her body ; and that her young are brousjht into 

 the world with an abundant covering of hair, and possessed of eyes remarkable for 

 wide-openness, biilliancy and beauty. Before the lillle world of naturalists will 

 believe in the hybridity of these leporines a number of very difficult questions must be 

 answered clearly and definitely: — 



1st. Who raised the first litter of leporines? 



2nd. Where were they raised .-* 



3rd. Was the male or female parent the hare? 



4th. By what management did the breeder achieve so unnatural a combination ? 



5th. What was the period of gestation in the first instance ; and what is it now, 

 when the leporines breed freely among themselves ? 



6th. How does the breeder account for the disa])pearance of all hare characters, 

 except some slight approach in size and colour, which all naturalists agree in 

 regarding as totally unimportant? 



Until these questions are satisfactorily answered I shall continue to regard 

 leporines as a breed of tame rabbits, differing no more from the common wild rabbit 

 than do the lop-eared, the silver sprigs, &c., &c. — Edward Newman. 



Ornithological Notes from Edinburgh.— On the 13th of last month a bird-catcher 

 showed me several hawfinches, bramblings and crossbills, which had been caught by 

 his boys near Morningside, about two days previously: one of the hawfinches, a very 

 fine male, having died soon after its capture, I took it away as a specimen, and on 

 examining the stomach found that it contained nothing but a few fragments of 

 barley and a little coarse sand. On the 15th, the same man brought me four curlew 

 sandpipers and three dunlins, all of which he killed at a single shot on the Fife coast: 

 be said that they were in company, with many others, feeding upon the sand, close to 

 the water's edge. On the 19th of the present month a friend of mine picked up the 

 remains of a little auk upon the sands at Portobello: it was a female, and had 

 apparently been dead for at least a week; the stomach was quite empty. A few days 

 ago T observed nine snow buntings feeding among the bushes which cover the face of 

 the steep rocks upon the south side of the Calton Hill: the ground being frozen at 

 the time the poor birds were probably led by hunger, rather than by choice, to seek 

 their food in this unusual, situation. — Henry L. Saxly ; 54, Gilmore Place, Edin- 

 burgh, December 28, 1861, 



Occurrence of the Golden Eagle near Driffield. — Early in this month I received a 

 fine adult golden eagle in the flesh, from Skerne, near Drifiield, shot by J. Kemp, 

 gamekeeper to A. Bannister, Esq., of Hull. The bird in question is a male, and 

 measures from beak to end of tail 2 feet 9 inches, to the end of toes 2 feet 6 inches, 

 spread of wings 6 feet 7 inches; weight 8 fts. 5 oz. I have also had lately brought 

 me, to be preserved, stormy petrels, little auks and the gray phalarope. — Alfred 

 Roberts; King Street, Scarborough, December 27, 1861, 



Occurrence of the Merlin near Alton.— Last week a female merlin was shot at 

 Chawton, about a mile from here. I have never known the merlin shot in this 

 neighbourhood hefove.— Philip Crowley; Alton, January 7, 1862. 



