THE ZooLocist—F EBRUARY, 1872. 2989 
selects for singing. We have heard her in a dusty hedgerow by a 
turnpike-road in the full blaze of a mid-day sun. Some tame 
nightingales we long kept in confinement used to begin to sing at 
the early dawn of a summer’s morning, and would generally remain 
mute during the day ; but if one commenced to sing the emulation 
of the others would be provoked and a full concert excited. In 
the winter time these birds would often sing of an evening directly 
the lamps were lit in the dining-room, where they were kept. 
There are many quaint legends and beliefs about birds which, 
hinted at by Shakespeare, are treated of and explained in Mr. 
Harting’s pages ; not the least being the familiar one of the pelican 
feeding its young with blood flowing from self-inflicted wounds 
upon its breast. It is thought that the ground-work for this old 
fable may be traced to a peculiarity which has been noticed in the 
_ flamingo, which has the power of secreting a blood-coloured fluid 
in its crop, with which it feeds its young in their callow state. We 
are also shown that “pigeon’s milk” (which we used to make a 
bye-word when schoolboys) is not altogether a myth. Most of the 
quaint old stories about animals and birds have some foundation, 
and it does not do to be content to dismiss them with ridicule. 
In attempting to investigate them, we shall be often rewarded by 
the rediscovery of interesting facts. 
M.A.M. 
[Both Mr. Harting and my kind correspondent who writes this review 
seem to have missed the correct interpretation of the expression “ russet- 
pated choughs.” Mr. Harting “urges the claim of the jackdaw to be the 
bird so distinguished. Now, as he truly says, the daw has a gray head, and 
to make Shakespeare term gray russet is in our eyes a crime. Without 
doubt the poet had in his mind the real Cornish chough, and the expression 
is quite accurate. ‘ Russet-patéd’ is having red pattes or feet (the heraldic 
croix patée), not a red pate or head—a feature equally inapplicable to chough 
or daw, while the red feet of the former are as diagnostic as can be.”— 
‘ Nature, December 28th. Thanks, ‘Nature,’ for this, which is un- 
questionably the true explanation —H. Newman. ] 
Rare Birds in Nottinghamshire.—Some very rare birds have been shot 
in Nottinghamshire during the past year, among which I may mention the 
following :-— 
Roughlegged Buzzard.—A. fine roughlegged buzzard was caught near 
Newark the last week in December. It was in a hedge, fast by the wing. 
