Birds. 9279 
were flushed, they are frequently successful. The education for this chase is by means 
of a trained raven, who wheels in higher circles over the young bird, tempting him 
higher and higher. The apparatus of African falconers seems to be the same as in 
the olden time among ourselves; the same hoods and gloves, the same care in feeding, 
and the same quaint remedies and nostrums. The price of a well-trained lanner, or 
sakk’r, is from 200 to 300 Spanish dollars; and, on the commission of a friend in 
England, I repeatedly offered, but in vain, 200 dollars. The sheik esteems a falcon 
as of the same value with a thorough-bred horse, and will exchange one for the other. 
No wonder then that I found it impossible to obtain one for my collection. Indeed it 
would have been a crime of the blackest dye to have shot one had I had the oppor- 
tunity.— Tristram’s ‘ Great Sahara,’ p. 63. 
Curious situation for the Skeleton of a Sparrow Hawk.—At the recent restoration 
of the old church here, the workmen, when clearing the interior, on removing a picture 
which hung over the eastern window, discovered a skeleton, or rather a mummy, of a 
bird, which I find to be a sparrow hawk. How came it here?” May we not presume 
that it had followed thither some bird which had literally “taken sanctuary”? If so, 
the first of the string of epithets applied to it by Mr. Yarrell, viz., “ bold, active, vigi- 
lant, destructive,” is certainly not unmerited.—C. #, Seaman ; Northwood, Isle of 
Wight, August 20, 1864. 
Willow Wren and Chiffchaff.—Before seeing Mr. Alston’s remarks (Zool. 9248) 
the editor had been informed of the mistake I had made in transcribing my rough 
notes Zool. 9172. For “ Yellow” read “ Willow” Wood Wren (Sylvia trochilus), the 
young of which is noticed in the ‘ Zovlogist’ (Zool. 9166). It was this species and its 
nests that I subsequently found so abundant, but the chiffchaff was seen and the date 
recorded.—Henry Hadfield; High Cliff, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, September 2, 1864. 
Water Pipit near Brighton.—By the help of Mr. Bree’s valuable work on the 
‘ Birds of Europe,’ I have identified two pipits the names of which have hitherto been 
unknown to us: we have had them some time waiting to be named, and at last find 
them to agree with the water pipit (Anthus spinoletta), a species found in many parts 
of Europe, breeding in mountainous districts, and in the winter found generally in the 
vicinity of rivers or pools of water in lower countries. This species has been much 
confounded with the rock pipit (A. aguaticus), from which, however, upon examination 
it proves to be as distinct as it is from the Pennsylvanian pipit (A. ludovicianus), the 
species obtained by Mr. Macgillivray near Edinburgh, in Juve, 1824, and by Mr. Gray 
near Glasgow. I have compared them with different rock pipits, and find them to 
differ even more than Mr. Bree’s description shows. The following are a few of the 
chief distinctions between the two species:— 
Water Pirir. Rock Pirir. 
General tinge of whole bird brown General tinge of whole bird olive- 
or reddish brown. green. 
Head and hind neck gray; back Head, hind neck and back oliva- 
brown, changing into richer brown on  ceous. 
the rump. 
Superciliary ridge white, extending Superciliary ridge yellowish white, 
to the occiput; in one specimen inter- 
sected by a patch of gray, the extreme 
end appearing as a white dot. 
distinct over the eye, and but very 
faintly indicated behind it. 
