The Zoologist— January, 1866. Jf 



Razorbill.— I am obliged to Mr. Blake-Knox for his reply (Zool. 

 9614) to lU}' enquiries respecting the plumage of the razorbill. My 

 uncertainty arose partly from having so very seldom met with the bird 

 in winter, but mainly from the misstatements contained in the few 

 ornithological works to which I was able to refer; some authors 

 asserting that there is a distinct white line from the bill to the eye in 

 winter, and others that there is merely a line of white dots at that 

 season. The error is probably due to the very common practice of 

 taking it for granted that specimens shot late in autumn or early in 

 spring are in winter plumage. 



Snipe. — Snipe are unusually scarce in the low grounds, this may, I 

 think, be attributed to the dryness of the summer, for although abund- 

 ance of rain has fallen lately, sufficient time has scarcely elapsed for 

 the newly formed pools to become stocked with food. 



Ski/' Lark. — Young sky larks are very abundant. When disturbed 

 they often alight for awhile upon a large stone or a wall, and utter a 

 short, irregular kind of song. 



Brent Goose. — On the r2th (wind S.W ), a brent goose suddenly 

 appeared in the peat-bogs near Haroldswick. It was shot at and 

 wounded, but escaped. 



House Sparrow. — Fresh eggs of the house sparrow were found by 

 me on the 13lh. Most of the young broods are fledged, and whole 

 families roost in the garden, preferring the thick, bushy tops of the 

 elders, which afford better concealment than the other trees. The first 

 ten minutes are usually spent in squatting and fluttering noisily among 

 the leaves, but when once settled for the night they are very unwilling 

 to leave the retreat. The parents seem to occupy the outer branches 

 during the whole of the night, and they always wait until the young 

 ones are quiet before they themselves retire. 



Cuckoo. — On the 17th (wind blowing strongly from S.E.) a boy 

 killed a cuckoo with a stone, upon the beach, at Haroldswick. 

 Although well feathered it was evidently a young bird of the year. 



Twite. — On the 20th, my attention being attracted by the peculiar 

 notes of a pair of twites, I searched among some tall shrubs, and found 

 three newly-fledged young ones, and soon afterwards a nest and one 

 addled egg near the top of an elder, about nine feet from the ground. 

 The nest was very large and clumsily made, and altogether different 

 in appearance from the neat little structures one finds in the walls or 

 upon the hill-sides. Those in the latter situations usually have very 

 little beneath the lining — sometimes nothing at all ; but in this one 



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