9532 Birds. 



Ornithological Notes from Lincolnshire. By John Cordeaux, Esq. 



(Continued from page 9449.) 



Hooded Croiv. — Hooded or graybacked crows are in great force this 

 winter in their favourite haunts, the Huinber flats and the adjoining 

 marsh country. They generally arrive on this coast the first week in 

 October; but I have known them, in one instance, appear as early as 

 the last week in September. For some days after tlieir arrival they are 

 far from shy and not difRcult to approach, consequently many fall 

 victims to the gunners; they soon, however, learn by dearly-bought 

 experience the range of a gun, and speedily acquire all the wariness 

 and cunning of their cousins, the carrion crows. The wild-fowl 

 shooters on this coast invariably shoot them when they have an oppor- 

 tunity, and I was surprised to find that they also eat them. An old 

 gunner informed me that he considered a "hoody" quite equal, if not 

 superior, to a scaup duck. Possibly their half-marine diet may give 

 them the true scaup flavour; I should decline, however, to make the 

 experiment. Nothing comes amiss to these birds in the way of food : 

 the carcase of a beast washed up on the coast is quite a royal banquet, 

 and I have known them gorge to such an extent on the putrid flesh 

 as to be scarcely able to fly ; nor is their attention directed exclusively 

 to the dead animal, for I have seen them hanging about in the vicinity 

 of a diseased and tainted sheep sonie time before its death, as if aware 

 it will soon be theirs, and should the poor animal become helpless and 

 unable to rise they will speedily hasten the period of dissolution by 

 tearing out its eyes. One which I shot and skinned the other day was 

 exceedingly fat: the stomach conlaiued a quantity of white oats and 

 the broken shells of Cardium edulc, and several broken and also some 

 entire shells of a Tellina. 



Teal: Escape of Birds hy Diving. — Dr. Saxby, in the 'Zoolo- 

 gist' (Zool. 9i3G) gives an interesting account of the escape of a 

 goldeneye by diving. I recently met with a curious instance of 

 this power of concealment in a wounded teal : one I shot at, on 

 a stream in this parish, fell slightly winged into a narrow ditch ; 

 this ditch was a mere shallow run from a little spring, the breadth at 

 the bottom not more than eighteen inches, and with about an inch in 

 depth of water, running over deep impalpable uuid, coloured red with 

 iron, and without any floating weeds to obstruct the view. Although 

 I went directly up to the spot, and found the water muddy, 1 saw no 

 bird: waiting till the water had cleared, I still could find no trace 

 whatever of the teal ; and although I closely examined the sides of the 



