9540 Birds. 



cock and tlie other hen I still have, and the hen lays regularly ; but during the last 

 six weeks she has taken to watch for and catch the mice, with which our yard is over- 

 run. I did not believe what I had been told as to her doing this ; but three diiys ago 

 I went into the yard and saw a bit of my hen's white feather slicking out of a low 

 bunch of heather and dead feni-stalks which is in one part of my fernery. The hen 

 was en cachetle. Presently I saw her head peeping out, and in another moment she 

 pounced ou a mouse, which was playing out of its hole, and killed it and brought it 

 to my feet. I remained about the yard another twenty minutes, and again saw the 

 hen catch a mouse in its beak and kill it with one blow of its bill on the bead. The 

 man who attends to the yard says that after killing the mice, the hen picks them to 

 pieces, but does not eat them."—/. H. Gurnci/ ; March 1, 1865. 



Moorhen perching in Trees. — On the 29tli of December, when out shooting near 

 Stratford Toney, Wiltshire, I sent a dog into a willow bed. The first bird flushed was 

 a moorhen, and it was with some surprise that I saw it perch in a willow sapling, some 

 ten feet from the ground. A few days afterwards, as I was walking through the same 

 willow-bed, I observed the same thing. On my nearer approach the bird took to flight 

 and I shot it. I have since observed this habit several times in this locality, but 

 though I have had a good opportunity of studying the habits of the moorhen in former 

 years, and in other localities, I never before observed it perch in a tree among twigs 

 not more than half an inch thick. — Joseph J. ArmiUead; Virginia House, Leeds, 

 Februari/2, 1865, 



[Moorhens very commonly roost in trees : I have seen as many as a dozen 

 at one tiuie thus elevated : taking them at first sight in the dusk for rooks. — 

 E. Newman.^ 



Carolina Crake near Newburi/. — In October last I shot, on the banks of the 

 Kennef, near Newbury, a Carolina crake {Pnrzana Carolina). It was exhibited by 

 Mr. A. Newton, of llagdalene College, Cambridge, at the Meeting of the Zoological 

 Society on the 14lh of February, who remarked on the fact of the species having also 

 been met with so far from its usual range as Greenland, and also on the vagrant habits 

 of some other llallidae; for instance, the common English corn crake, which has not 

 only occurred once in Greenland, but also in the Bermudas, and several times on the 

 eastern coast of the United States. — //. S. Eyre ; Ncwington, near Sittingbourne. 



Tttfhd Duck near Salisbnri/. — I have had three specimens of the tufted duck 

 brought to me since Christmas, two males and one female, all of them shot in this im- 

 mediate neighbourhood. Wild fowl have been less abundant with us this winter than 

 usual. — Henri/ Blackmore. 



Sclavonian Grebe at IVurthing. — On the 7th of March, 1865, a gardener, who has 

 the care of a walled-in garden on the outskirts of Worthing, on entering the garden, 

 about nine o'clock in the morning, observed a bird, apparently asleep, with its head 

 under its wing, near one of the garden-walks. Ou touching it with his foot it attempted 

 to flutter away, but the gardener caught it, and Jiaving killed it, took it to Mr. Wells, 

 birdstuffer, at Worthing. The bird proved to be a Sclavonian grebe, in full winter 

 plumage: it was in very fair condition, and apparently quite uninjured. On dissec- 

 tion it was found to be a female, but the ova were but little developed, none being 

 linger than a sm;ill pin's head and the majority considerably less. The stomach con- 

 tained (as is usual in the grebes) several of the bird's own feathers, together with 

 minute angular pebbles and a bright green vegetable substance apparently the 



