740 The Zoologist— May, 1807. 



numbers in their nesting-trees, attracted no doubt by the mildness of 

 the weather, the thermometer having been up to 53° during the month, 

 and that too at an early hour. 



Yellow Wagtail. — 17th. This species has been again observed. 



Jackdaw. — There is a pied jackdaw in the Land-slip Cliffs, a bird 

 of the season I have reason to believe, or it must have been before 

 observed. In having the secondary quills and coverts white it greatly 

 resembles the magpie. 



Fieldfare. — 22nd. Though a flock was observed to-day, compara- 

 tively few have been seen this season, there having been no cold to 

 drive them so far south. Owing to the absence of either snow or 

 severe frost, thrushes have escaped the usual Christmas slaughter, and 

 may be daily heard pouring forth their joyful notes. Our thrushes, 

 owing to the late mild winters, are decidedly on the increase. The 

 blackbird, though as prolific a species as the thrush, is not nearly so 

 numerous; its black plumage, being more conspicuous, renders it more 

 liable lo attack from its deadly enemy the sparrow-hawk. 



January, 1867. 



Sky Lark. — On the 2nd and 3rd this neighbourhood was visited 

 by great flights of larks, doubtless driven southward by the heavy fall 

 of snow in the northern counties: even here the ground, for the most 

 part, was covered with snow, and the thermometer, at 9 a.m. on the 3rd, 

 was at 25°. Many of the birds were in a very exhausted state ; one 

 I observed in the garden feeding on the leaf of a broccoli ; another 

 was lying with outstretched wings on the ground. Intermixed with 

 them were many titlarks. 



Partridge. — Though a strong and hardy bird, the severe winter is 

 beginning to tell on them ; and they now feed chiefly, if not wholly, 

 on the grass and turnip-leaves that are still above the snow. The 

 gizzard of one shot on the 19th contained but a small quantity of 

 coarse grass, but the cceca, &c, were crammed with a green pulpy 

 mass, more or less digested, which I took to be turnip-leaf. No grain 

 of any kind being now procurable necessitates their cramming them- 

 selves with less nutritious food. Though now wild and wary, they 

 will at times allow a small dog to chase them in a turnip-field before 

 taking wing. The plumage of a splendid old male lately shot was of 

 a beautiful light gray on the throat, neck and upper part of the breast. 

 Macgillivray says that the partridge lays from ten to fifteen eggs ; 



