9110 Birds. 
birds have been previously observed in this neighbourhood. Tt may be some satisfac- 
tion to him to hear that I have for some years past known the parish of Drayton- 
Beauchamp well, which lies at the foot of the Chilterns, about four miles from 
Weston-Turville, and I never remember a winter passing without some large flocks of 
bramblings frequenting the stubbles and stack-yards in the parish.—_H. Harpur Crewe ; 
The Rectory, Drayton-Beauchamp, Tring, April 13, 1864. 
Habits of the Howfinch—As Mr. Boulion has kindly made several remarks upon 
the habits of this bird (Zool. 9042), and has also endeavoured to set me right in various 
points of my former communication, I will endeavour to explain them more fully. 
Firstly, as to the contents of the gizzard being the kernels of plums or damsons, and 
not sloes, I was led to this opinion, and still keep it, by the size of kernels, most of 
them being only slightly broken: they were far too large for thuse of the sloe, and the 
bullace is not very common with us in the south: plum and damson orchards abound 
everywhere; there is scarcely a cottage without a dozen or more of these trees, and 
though last year there was not an abundant crop, yet they are generally very plentiful, 
and once, in our own orchard, rather than be at the expense and trouble of getting 
them, we let them fall from the trees as food for our pigs. ‘The hawfinch does not, 
however, limit its meals to the kernels of stone fruit, for my brother, who is now at 
Weston, has lately caught another with a horsehair noose in our garden. It was in 
the habit of coming every morning to feed on the seeds of the Portugal laurel: when 
feeding on these seeds it would naturally take some grit into its gizzard. It soon 
became quite reconciled to its captivity, and would suffer itself to be fed without any 
signs of fear. I may nevertheless have been in error as to the triturating substance in 
the gizzard of the specimen I examined, as I did not apply any lens: it looked far too 
fine for broken plum-stone, but as Mr. Boulton says that the bird crushes them so 
fine, it may have been so in this case. I am much obliged to Mr. Boulton for this 
suggestion, and will not fail to apply it next time I have the pleasure of examining 
this bird —R. Tyrer ; Keighley, Yorkshire, May 21, 1864. 
Crossbills in Bedfordshire—On Monday, the 11th of April, three crossbills were 
brought to me, killed near Aspley. They formerly were frequently met with about 
here, but are now of very rare occurrence. I imagine they are not ofien found in any 
part of England so late in the spring as April.—C. Hervey Smith ; Aspley Guise, 
Bedfordshire, April 15, 1864. 
Hooded Crows at Brighton.—On the 29th of February I was surprised by seeing a 
quantity of hooded crows on the cliffs beyond Brighton, near Rottingdean. I counted 
twelve feeding voraciously, with jackdaws and rooks, in a wheat-field, and passed 
quite close without disturbing them.—C. J. Maurice; East Court Cottage, East 
Grinstead, March 16, 1864. 
Food of the Rook.—About ten days ago I saw a pair of rooks eagerly tearing to 
pieces and devouring a dead lamb. They were standing upon the carcass, and while 
tearing it with their beaks pushed vigorously against it with their feet. When I 
approached to within some ten paces or so, so intent were they on their meal that they 
only hopped off to a short distance, each carrying a piece in his or her beak, and not 
seeming at all ashamed of their “ weakness” for “high” meat. I have repeatedly 
seen rooks, as well as carrion crows, engaged in a like manner, and never knew that it 
was not generally known. The gamekeepers round this quarter are in the habit of 
setting traps baited with eggs for magpies, and they repeatedly find rooks taken 
prisoners instead. I have known also of an instance of a rook being caught by the 
