1006 The Zoologist — December, 1867. 



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" first he sang a merry song, 

 An' syne he sang a grave, 

 An' syne he picked his feathers gray, 

 An' her the letter ga?e." 



So noble were the falcon's instincts that when a great hero died his 

 favourites would wander all over Europe till they found a new lord 

 worthy of their old one ! 



Kestrel. — The ancients believed the kestrel to be the friend and 

 protector of pigeons, defending them from other falcons, and inducing 

 them to remain at home. Wherefore the bodies of four kestrels, 

 accordiug to Pliny and others, should be enclosed in newly-painted 

 earthen pots, and buried at the four corners of the dovecote, and then 

 the pigeons will be found not to stray from the place. The old 

 Scotch name of "stanchel" was probably a corruption of stand-gale, 

 from its well-known habit of hovering in the wind ; hence also its local 

 name in Angus, " Willie-whip-the-wind." (Jamieson, 'Scottish Dic- 

 tionary.') 



Hen Harrier. — My friend Mr. R. Gray informs me that in the 

 Hebrides, where the magpie is unknown, this species takes its place 

 as a bird of augury. " Should any one be more than ordinarily for- 

 tunate on a certaiu day, it is said that he must have seen the * clam- 

 hanluch' (from clamhan, a hawk, and luck, a mouse) or hen harrier." 

 This bird is very abundant in these islands. 



Owls. — The owl is in all lands the typical bird of superstition ; its 

 noiseless flight, its horrible nocturnal cries, and the ghostly character 

 of its usual haunts, all combine to connect it with the powers of dark- 

 ness. Accordingly all dramatists and novelists have used it freely in 

 working up incantation and demoniac sceues. The curious and 

 widely-spread legend of the owl being a transformed baker's daughter 

 has been already noticed by Mr. Hailing (Zool. S. S. 412). The same 

 story, under other forms and applied to other species, will be again 

 alluded to. 



Water Ouzel.— The reputed power of this bird of walking along the 

 bed of a river may, I think, be included among popular delusions, 

 although a voluminous writer of the present day has declared it to be 

 " an established fact." 



Stonechat. — In the North of Scotland this bird is called the " clo- 

 charet" or " clocharn " (from cloich, a stone, and ram, a song ? Jamie- 

 son), and is believed to be assisted by the toad in incubation. In the 



