1514 ' The Zoologist — January, J 869. 



liere, it it intended to be added to our collection of Kentish birds. The bird is now 

 to be seen in its cage in lively and healthy condition. The food given is canary and 

 hemp-seed, which it eats freely and thrives upon. It is a male bird, and I intend, if 

 possible, 10 keep it alive, in the hope of hearing its song. The markings are very 

 brilliant (see description in Yarrell, vol. i. p. 402). I believe this is the first known 

 instance of the shore lark having been captured alive in England. — Charles Gordon; 

 Museum, Dover, November 2.'?, 1b68. 



Sexes of Chaffinches. — We have had the usual large flocks of chaffinches iu this 

 neighbourhood, and although I know it is thought by our best authorities on 

 Ornithology that the sexes separate during the winter, I am not satisfied as to that 

 point. Every one who has an opportunity of seeing young chaffinches in their nests 

 must be aware that all of them, as far as plumage is concerned, are females: this 

 plumage they retain until the spring moult, so that, supposing each pair of chaffinches 

 bred twice in the year, there will be to all appearances nine female birds to one male, 

 calculating four to each brood : thus we should have but ten males in a flock of one 

 hundred birds; that is, supposing the old males were preseut in the large flocks we 

 see in the winter, which I believe to be the young birds of the year ; hence the 

 appearance of a flock being female birds. I cannot call to my recollection ever seeing 

 a large flight of chaffinches that I could suppose to be composed entirely of male 

 birds ; and, moreover, if we see two chaffinches together at this time of the year, they 

 are almost certain lobe male and female, or if you go into any farmstead you will find 

 both sexes feeding together in about equal numbers: this certainly does not look like 

 separation of the sexes. I do not know if the experiment has ever been tried of 

 catching a dozen or two out of the large flights we see at this season, and keeping 

 them in an aviary until after the spring moult: if it were tried I think it would be 

 found, instead of being of one sex, that the sexes were about equal in numbers. — 

 Stephen Clogg ; East Looe, Cornwall. 



Common Crossbill near Taunton. — Three of these very irregular visitors were shot 

 in this village ou Friday, the 1 Ith of December, and brought to me for identification : 

 they were supposed to be some very extraordinary foreign birds. There were two in 

 very fine red plumage, and one iu the green plumage. Except these I have not seen 

 or heard of any here since those mentioned by me, in the 'Zoologist' for 1865, as 

 having been killed here about twenty years ago. Besides the three brought to me 

 I have seen several specimens, all red ones, which had been brought to Mr. Bidgood, 

 at the Museum at Taunton: they had all been killed near that town in the beginning 

 of this month. — Cecil Smiih ; Lydtard House, Taunton, December 14, 1868. 



Rooks and Rookeries.— At Trenant Park, in the parish of Duloc, the seat of 

 Mr. W. Peel, about a mile and a half from Looe, a rook, with three or four of the 

 outer primaries of each wing white, has built her nest each year on the same tree, and 

 nearly on the same spot: the young ones, as far as I can learn, have never had any 

 white on them. The rookery is close by the house, so that a strict watch has been 

 kept, and orders given that the white-winged rook is not to be killed; I therefore 

 hope she may be spared for some years yet. Can anyone account for the capricious 

 choice of rooks as to their nesting-places? I can recollect this rookery for more thau 

 thirty years, and although there has been no change as regards the number of trees in 

 the old rookery, yet the nests there are becoming fewer in number every year, and a 

 new colony has been formed in a plantation about a quarter of a mile from, and ift 



