Birds. 9561 



(street and) quay, descended the slip and slaked their thirst with the water there, and 

 thence retired in order due to their several tenements. Desirous of testing:, as far as 

 possible, the accuracy of so stirtlinj^ a report, acompanied by a couple of brother 

 naturalists, I called at the hut specified on Geoitre's Pier-Iiead, and here met an 

 intellif^ent official of eighteen veais' standinii upon this ideniical location. After 

 hearing the account read, he replied with peifect readiness that certainly he had never 

 seen or heard of au;;ht confirmatory; on the contrary, having formerly been many 

 years upon the high sens, he was firmly convinced that rats would nut drink s ilt water, 

 though, like a shipwrecked man upon a raft, they might possibly, when hardly pressed 

 by thirst, taste \i for oHce, and this opinion is universal among "old salts." Deter- 

 mined, however, to gain from the public any possible confirmation of the statement, 

 an enquiry from my pen appeared in one of our local newspapers, more particularly 

 addressed to tide-waiters and dock-gatemen, the only reply to which also proves con- 

 demnatory of the theory. It elicited the following account, which I have#reason to 

 believe authentic: — "A friend of mine, a captain, tried an experiment with a rat 

 during a voyage from this port to New York in the middle of summer. He procured 

 a small box or cage, in the bottom of which he fixed a wine-glass, which he filled 

 with salt water. Having caught a rat, he jdaued it in the box and ke|)t it in confine- 

 ment. He is certain, from close observation, that the rat did not taste the water, 

 although apparently it suflFered from thirst. After it had been confined a week, he 

 offered it fresh water, a draught of which it seemed only too glad to get. He has 

 also noticed, when in dock, rats descend by the fender-ropes to the surface of the 

 water, but they ascended again immediately." In conclusion, I cannot but fear your 

 correspondent has been imposed upon by some member of another " mighty army," 

 viz. that of the "larkiuij swells" of this place, who infest the district worse than any 

 marsupial. — H. Ecroyd Smith ; Egremont, Birkenhead. 



Scarcity of Winter Migrants. — Several correspondents of the ' Times,' ' Field,' &c., 

 have mentio'.ied the immense flocks of redwings, fieldfares, brambliiigs, &c., observed 

 in some nei;;hhourhiiods ; here, however, it is far otherwise. Since I have taken an 

 interest in Ornithology, I think, I never remember seeing so few winter migrants as 

 this season. We usually get great quantities of bramblings, but, hitherto, I have not 

 seen a single bird of that species. At the commencement of the winter a few tree 

 sparrows visited our neighbourhood, hut did not, as usual, remain through the winter, 

 but took their departure before Christmas, I presume further south. Giving to the 

 severity of the winter, since the commencement of the new year, linzens of fieldfares 

 have perished for want of food ; and yet I have not found a single redwing apparently 

 suffering from a like cause: this I attribute to the latier's being more nearly allied to 

 the blackbird and song thrush in its habits, viz. by frequenting the bottoms of hedge- 

 rows, thereby obtaining a sufficiency of food in the shape of mollusks and the pU|ise of 

 Lepidoplera. A few blackheaded buntings have remained with us throughout the 

 winter: I do not recollect ever having seen any here before at this time of year. 

 Even in the present enlightened age, we seem too much in the background to account 

 for the variations in the routes of migratory birds. I think it is generally admitted 

 that their normal course should be due north and south ; but where are the migrmts 

 which do not deviate, either east or west, from the normal route? This may pr.ilialdv 

 VOL. XXIII. 2 A 



