2062 The Zoologist— March, 1870. 



coininenced until indications of the reiuin of spring are apparent; and so associated 

 in my mind is it with vernal tokens that the pretty but short succession of notes given 

 by this elef^ant liitle bird early in February is then to my ears what the sight of the 

 early snowdrop is to my eyes — a witness of leugthenin<j days and brightening skies. 

 For many years past I have made notes for a " naturalist's calendar," after the manner 

 of good old Gilbert White of Selborne, and from among them extract the following 

 dates as those at which the chaffinch's song was first heard in the years named, in ihc 

 neighbourhood of Plymouth: — February 12, 1856; February 16, 1860; January 27, 

 1861; January 31, 1862; January 31, 1863 ; February 2, 1865 ; January 24, 1866 ; 

 February 10, 1867; February 11, 186t». 1 am pleased to find the observant Waterton 

 writing as follows, in his most charming essay on this bird : — " The chaffinch never 

 sinjiS when on the wing ; but it warbles incessantly on ihe trees, and on the hedge-rows, 

 from ihe early part of February to the second week in July ; and then (if the bird be 

 in a stale of freedom) its song entirely ceases. You may hear the thrush, the lark, the 

 robin and ihe wren sing from time to time in the dreary months of winter; but you 

 will iiexer, by any chance, have one single note of ujelody from the chaffinch. lis 

 powers of song have sunk into a deep and long lasting trance, not to be roused by any 

 casually whatever. All that remains of its voice, lately so sweet and so exhilarating, 

 is ihe blirill and uell-known monotonous call, which becomes remarkably distinct and 

 frequent whenever the cat, the owl, the weasel, or the fox are seen to be ou the 

 move." — T. R. Archer Briygs ; 4, Purlland Villas, Plymouth, February 2, 1870. 



Piid Crow. — Yesterday morning a man in the employ of the liev. W. H. Gretton, 

 Burley Wood, Fast Woodhay, Hants, shot a crow which had been watched with much 

 interest in that neighbuuiliood for several weeks, many futile attempts to kill it, ou 

 account of its peculiar appearand', having been made. On examination it was found 

 that seven feathers of one wiT)g, and five of the other, besides the plumage on a poriiuu 

 of the neck, were of a pure white colour. This rara avis is in the possession of the 

 llev. W. H. Gretlon, who has arranged for its iireservalion. The crow is believed to 

 be one of last year's birds. — ' 'J'imes,' February 3, 1870. 



Reported probable occurrence of the Ptarmigan in Yorkshire. — Mr. J. E. Harling 

 is in error in supposing, in my remarks on .Mr. Grainger's letler (Zool. S. S. 1951), that 

 I referred to Yoikshiie as a locality for the ptarmigan, and furthermore uii^hl have 

 seen, by a refeieiice to the ' Ibis' for 1865 (p. 427), that I make no reference to Lagopus 

 vulgaris, in the list furnished by me to Mr. More of the nesting birds of Yorkshire. 

 Mr. Harting quotes exleusively from Mr. More's paper, to show that the ptarmigan 

 has never been found in Yorkshire, but as Mr. More's paper refers exclusively to " The 

 distribution of birds in Great Britain during the nesting season,"* and as the ptar- 

 migan does not nest, I believe, in October, the quotation perhaps scarcely applies. 

 The birds described in the newspaper as " four white partridges," and since described 

 to Mr. Hariiug by the writer of the paragraph as being "cream-coloured," and 

 forming part of a covey of the same variety, might probably, I considered at the lime, 

 prove to be ptarmigan, accidental stragglers from their high northern haunts. — Alwin 

 S. Bell. 



* " Our census is necessarily limited to the nesting season, that being the only 

 time when the birds can be treated as stationary." 



