7708 Birds. 



ill Australia. It appears ihe Canliiial Archbishop of Bordeaux is at ihe head of an 

 active movement among his clergy for the protection of birds in the South of France, 

 and the Prefect of Lyons has already denounced birdsnesting by schoolboys on ihe 

 Rhone. I now adduce a few stiitistics, either from per.«onal observation or on iho 

 authority of naturalists upon whose veracity I can rely. A shoit time since a boy 

 brou<>ht me, as he said, a few small birds to look at. To my astonishment he 

 exposed to view a hundred yellow buntings, something like fifty or sixty common 

 buntings, thirty thrushes, and some hundreds more of perfectly harmless species, being 

 for the most part insect feeders. All these owed their death to that detestable nostrum 

 known as sparrow and vermin killer. Some days since I was not less astounded to 

 see one of those rascals who designate themselves professional bird-killers with a cart 

 load of dead birds, which he, with seeming pride, exhibited as a proof of his skill. I 

 believe it would be no exaggeration to say that this man had destroyed the pro- 

 digious number of two thousand sparrows, seven hundred yellow buntings, six hun- 

 dred common buntings, innnmerable gieenfinches, and linnets by the hundred. It 

 was a sight I shall never forget. A friend says that in his parish, only a year or so 

 since, the thrush's jdeasant song might be heard in almost every copse ; uow the bird is 

 almost extinct there. The famed and melodious nightingale is fast disappearing from 

 Canibridf;e. Who that loves the voice of song hut deeply regrets this? Such and 

 worse will follow, if this ruthless destruction is not stayed. — 5. P. Saville ; Dover 

 Bouse, Cambridge, August 13, 1861. 



The Kfslrel pursuing a Sandpiper. — My son, when fishing in the Tummel, about 

 two miles below Loch Runnoch, on the 23id of July last, saw a female kestrel attempt 

 to take a sandpiper from the water. When first seen (at the distance of about thirty 

 yards) the sandpiper was on the water about mid-stream, and the feet of the hawk 

 were dropped to seize him. To avoid his enemy, the sandpiper (apparently a young 

 one) dived, rising again in about .half a minute, and taking wing from the water, 

 when the kestrel flew off, alarmed by my son's presence. As the sandpiper is not a 

 swimmer, it must have been driven to the water by its pursuer; and it seems singular 

 that a hawk supposed to prey chiefly upon mice, which it takes by droi ping upon 

 them much in the manner of the white owl, should thus pursue a swifi-flying aquatic 

 bird with the fierceness of the sparrowhawk. The abundance of sandpipers, and the 

 probable scarcity of field-mice in this valley while the crops are all standing, may 

 have had something to do with the fact. — Henry Husscy ; Kinloch Rannoch, Perth- 

 shire, August 2, 1861. 



Occurrence of the Shore Lark at Woolwich. — A week or two ago I went into a 

 small bir<l-stufler's shop here, and whilst conversing with the owner he informed me 

 that a workman in the dockyard at SiieemejiS hud, during the cold weather last 

 February, shot five specimens of what he called the American lark. Upon his 

 describing them, however, I made out that they could not be that species, being too 

 small, having a crest on the head, and various other distinctions by no means charac- 

 teristic of the American lark. The man said that the only bird which he thought in 

 any way resembled them was the cirl bunting ; so I was somewhat curious to find 

 out what these remarkable individuals really were. In my own mind I set them down 

 as being the shore lark, if any species of Alauda at all ; and as my friend kindly offered 

 to get them for me to look at, I did not refuse, and a few days ago called on him 

 again, when be showed me five specimens of Alauda alpestris, Linn. So I had 

 guessed rightly. There were apparently two adult males, one female, and two 



