Birds. 9733 



[This egg a good deal resembles in shape a jargonelle pear, but the pyriform 

 figure is still more pronounced. — Edward Newman.'] 



Nidifivadoii and Incubation of the Emeu. — Mr. Beunett, in his interesting' and 

 detailed account of the breeding of the emeu in captivity, remarks (Zool. "-'319), " thus 

 definitely settling the question of sexes, the extraordinary reversal of habits and 

 manners by which we had been misled, and the crowning fact of the male bird doing 

 all the sitting." Mr. Bennett is, seemingly, unaware that this fact, namely, that it is 

 to the male of this sjiecies that the duties of incubation belong, was long ago recorded 

 by Nieremberg, and is thus referred to by Buffon in the year 1770: — " Nieremberg, 

 conte des choses fort etranges au sujet de leur propasi^ation ; selon lui, c'est le male 

 qui se charge de couver les oeufs ; pour cela, il fait en sorte de rassembler vingt ou 

 trenle feraelles, afin qu'elles pondent dans un nieine nid ; des quelles ont poiidu, il les 

 chasse a grand coups de bee, et vient se poser sur leur oeufs." Bui the fact of the 

 male incubating was not credited, being, seemingly, too marvelhius even for a Buffon, 

 for he adds, "A I'egard de ce male qui se charge dit-on, de couver a I'exclusion des 

 femelles, je serois fort povte a douter du fait, et comme peu aveie, et comme contraire 

 a I'ordre de la nature." — Henry ffadfield ; Ventnor, Isle of Wight, June 21, 1865. 



[I think my correspondent misunderstands Mr. Bennett, who knows perfectly well 

 how often the singular fact has been asserted and how often contradicted ; indeed it 

 has been a moot point ever since the first dawu of our knowledge of the emeu : 

 Mr. Bennett thinks he has now settled the question, and I must say I agree with him. 

 Edward Newman^ 



Woodcock in July. — "On Friday last Mr. Cann, of Hiscott, in this parish (Taw- 

 stock), captured alive a fine woodcock, which weighed twelve ounces. The bird was 

 sold to an ornithologist of Barnstaple, who placed it in his garden, where it still lives 

 and thrives." The above paragraph was cut out of the ' North Devon Journal ' of the 

 27th of July. I remember, a few summers since, some children caught a woodcock in 

 a small copse close to Barnstaple, and this bird, like the one mentioned above, was in 

 good condition and quite uninjured. It almost seems as if woodcocks occasionally 

 became lethargic in the summer time, and permitted themselves to be caught without 

 any attempt to fly, as on the occasion I refer to, and apparently also the recently cap- 

 lured bird noticed in the ' North Devon Journal.' I should be glad to know if any of 

 the readers of the 'Zoologist' have come across woodcocks thus seemingly indifferent 

 to their freedom. — M. A. Malheiv ; Weston-super-Mare, August 3, 1865. 



Snipe in the middle of July. — There were a quantity of snipes for a few days on 

 the peat moor between Highbridge and Wells, the middle of last month, after some 

 heavy showers here had made places here and there rather splashy. A keeper on the 

 moor, who shot a few of them, declared that they were all young birds ; but I never 

 place much reliance on keepers, for, as far as my experience goes, no set of men are 

 more ignorant about birds. I was surprised to find Mr. Hartiu^ (Zool. 9667) giving 

 any credence to a member of this class, especially ou the matter of hawks, of which all 

 keepers I have ever encountered are most supremely ignorant, recognizing, in general, 

 but two species, viz., ''the kite," which includes everything larger than a peregrine, 

 and "the little blue hawk," which means the peregrine, sparrowhawk, merlin and 

 hobby. Indeed I doubt if half the keepers in the kingdom can tell a cuckoo from a 

 hawk.— 7</. 



Berniide Goose near Cockermouth. — During the hard frosts experienced here in 

 January a friend of mine shot male and female bernicle geese, out of a flock of at 



