7380 Birds. 



now preserved in the Banff Museum, is scarcely four inches in length, tail and all ; 

 and its weight is only one-eighth of an ounce and thirteen grains ! Well might the 

 esteemed author of the ' Natural History of Selhonie ' say, " I suppose they are ihe 

 smallest quadruped in this island,'' and he might have added " or perhaps on any 

 other." Far be it from me to say aught against any mouse, or indeed against any 

 animal whatever; but I cannot help thinking that these little creatures are the most 

 elegant and pretty of their kind I have ever seen. From what I had read about the 

 harvest mouse I was led to believe that it was of a reddish brown ; hut this I find not 

 to be the case, at least with these, which are both adults : they are rather of a delicate 

 glossy bay, except the belly, which is pure white. — Thomas Edward; Banff, 

 December 8, 1860. 



Nesting of the Griffon Vulture (Vultur fulvus) in Eastern Algeria. — A French 

 " colon," who, when occasionally sober, plied the trades of carpenter and " chasseur," 

 had offered to take us to some accessible griffons' nests. The rain was descending in 

 torrents when we set out with our guide, and so dense were the clouds that it was 

 impossible to detect even a griffon at two hundred yards. However, after some 

 scrambling in the forest, we approached the edge of a long range of cliffs, from whose 

 fissures and ledges many a mountain shrub and tree stretched forth and partially 

 covered the nakedness of the rocks : carefully peering over the top, we soon espied, at 

 a distance of some fifty feet below us, the cumbrous heap of sticks which generally 

 serves the vulture for a nest ; but were dismayed to see instead of au egg an unfledged 

 downy squab. Had we come too late for nesting ? It was an ominous disappoint- 

 ment to commence with. However, "II y a de plus encore," cries our Frenchman, 

 and we soon made out a second nest a little lower down the cliff. Alarmed by the 

 falling of a stone, the parent bird deliberately rises, slowly stretches her wings, and, 

 with two or three majestic wavings of her pinions, leaves a single egg disclosed to 

 view. Having discovered a narrow ledge by which the nest may be reached, Simpson 

 boldly descends, and reverentially handles the first griffon's egg he had ever seen 

 in situ. But, calling out to us that he will wait till the complement has been laid, 

 he clambers up to the top again. He has scarcely arrived there when the mother 

 returns, and, quietly sailing in, lets herself drop on the edge of the nest. Here she 

 pauses for a minute or two, grotesquely turns her neck and squints at her beloved egg, 

 first with one eye, then with the other. Next she sniffs at it, turns it over and over, 

 and with fond admiration, taking another look, seats herself down on it. It must be 

 hard set, we remark, and Simpson, resigning hopes of any additional booty, deter- 

 mines to descend again and secure his prize. He had almost reached the nest before 

 the parent bird would quit it : the egg proved to have been incubated for some time, 

 and was the best-marked griffon's we obtained. — H. B. Tristram, in the '■Ibis,' ii. 362. 



Occurrence of the Spotted Eagle (Falco naevius) at Lundy Island. — My friend 

 Mr. Heaven, of Lundy, some three years since shot a specimen of the spotted eagle 

 on the island ; so that Mr. Eodd's bird is not the first which has occurred in the West 

 of England. — Murray A. Mathews ; Raleigh, Barnstaple, February 1, 1861. 



Occurrence of the American Whiteheaded Eagle (Falco leucocephalus) in Somerset- 

 shire P— The following notice of the appearance, in Somersetshire, of the whiteheaded 

 eagle may be interesting to some of the readers of the ' Zoologist.' It is extracted from 



