8884 Birds. 
the stone intact, so that several of these stones may serve as the grinders of their own 
fleshy coverings, when rubbed together by the muscular action of the gizzard, acting 
upon one another more perfectly in the unbroken state than they possibly could do if 
broken, in which latter case they would cut the flesh (which is the food), and not reduce 
it to a pulp fit for assimilation, as they actually do crush and prepare it. I have only 
had the opportunity of dissecting this single specimen of the hawfinch, and therefore 
beg to submit my remarks with the utmost deference to the experience and opinion 
of other observers. In addition permit me to suggest as an inquiry, Would not both 
these birds, viz., the Bohemian waxwing and the hawfinch, swallow grit, &c., like other 
hard-billed birds, if compelled to feed on other food than stone fruit? or, do they liye 
entirely on stone fruit when in a wild state? J have kept the hawfinch in captivity, 
when J fed him upon hemp seed, but as I often collected haw berries for him, and 
eventuaily set him at liberty instead of dissecting him, I cannot decide the question. 
I certainly never saw him crunching sand, although I have frequently watehed him 
crush the haw stones as though they had been made of paper. Is it not singular that 
the hawfinch I dissected should have fed upon the kernels of the sloe, which is by no 
means abundant here, when he was in the midst of hundreds of hawthorn bushes well 
stored with the fruit, which I always imagined he preferred to any other, and from 
which circumstanee, indeed, I believe he derives his name ?—W. W. Boulton ; Novem- 
ber 25, 1863. 
Nesting of the Lesser Redpole at Dalkey.—On the 19th of July I found a redpole’s 
nest in our shrubbery. It was situated between the trunk aud a bough of a lime tree, 
about eight feet from the ground. ‘The young were fully fledged. This is the first 
instance of the redpole breeding in this neighbourhood to my knowledge.—H. Blake- 
Knox ; Bartragh, Dalkey, Co. Dublin, October 28, 1863. 
Food of the Rook.—Mr. Edmund Harting (Zool, 8816) seems to doubt that rooks 
feed on “ birds, field-mice, young rabbits, different animals and decaying substances.” 
As the rook is a much persecuted bird I have the more pleasure in being able to fully 
endorse M. Prevost’s observations on its food. The rook is omnivorous, but its chief 
delight is carrion, and this, from a rat to a sheep, it greedily devours, no matter how 
decomposed ; in fact, the more disgustingly putrid, the more the rook appears to enjoy 
it; in short, the rook may truly be termed the British vulture. They will also readily 
kill and devour young birds and field-mice; and instances have even come under my 
own observation in which young lambs, in a weak state, have been attacked by rooks, 
the onslaught being made by their first picking out the eyes of the lamb. Non- 
naturalists and the public geuerally appear to be impressed with the very erroneous 
idea that naturalists wish to infer that no birds should be destroyed ; this is a very 
palpable mistake. The great pleading of naturalists is to do away with the present 
wanton and indiscriminate destruction of small birds. Nothing appears to me more 
simple than to draw a well-defined line between the wholly insectivorous and partly 
granivorous birds, for as a rule, with few exceptions, the wholly insectivorous are unfit 
for food, whereas the partly granivorous, such as the sparrow, greenfinch, &e., are 
delicious when nicely cooked; and although by eating “sparrow pie” we may not 
visibly enlarge our intellectual faculties, still we have the gratification of having par- 
taken of a most wholesome and nourishing dish. Since, therefore, by man the natural 
destroyers of these birds have become nearly exterminated, by man must they neces- 
sarily be kept within reasonable bounds. By-the-bye, can you or any of your readers 
give me any information as to the northern winter range of the ringdove or woodpigeon ? 
