The Zoologist— September, 1870. 2289 



them sit the rooks and jaclidaws. These now stand out wonderfully 

 distinct, single or in dark groups against the clear opal sky, now 

 flushed with the last faint glow of departing day. Some are sleeping, 

 others sit all in a lump, their head half-buried between the shoulders. 

 It is a scene of the most perfect rest and contentment. I feel very 

 much like a burglar in the midst of a sleeping household as I bring 

 my gun up, not to destroy, but to alarm ; I can touch the unconscious 

 stai'lings right and left with the muzzle. The effects of the discharge 

 is perfectly astounding, — I can only compare the row to the bursting of 

 some large reservoir; it is the roar and rush of a mighty torrent. The 

 dust and smell are overpowering, as the birds in their fright dislodge 

 the dried whitewash with which every branch and twig is coated, 

 floating downwards in a dense cloud of white pungent powder, mixed 

 with feathers, till I am nearly suffocated by the mingled heat and 

 stench. The plantation becomes very much what I should imagine 

 the hold of a guano-ship would be in a gale of wind. Ten minutes 

 after the shot the hubbub has ceased, and the starlings once more 

 settled on their roosts, the rooks and jackdaws returning a few minutes 

 later. On a second shot the latter to a bird leave the cover and do 

 not return again, retiring to a neighbouring wood. The starlings 

 merely rise above the trees and settle again ; no amount of firing 

 would now dislodge them. As I leave the plantation at a little past 

 nine, another flight of rooks is arriving, but these are from the York- 

 shire side of the Humber: every morning they cross the river (here 

 seven miles in width) into Holderness, retiring to roost in Lincoln- 

 shire. Tliey are always one to two hours later in getting to roost than 

 our local birds : to night they appear to drop from the clouds, as in a 

 long straggling body they dash downwards. There is no noisy 

 clamour, hardly indeed a single suppressed ' caw,' as each at once 

 takes his place, not leaving it again, and in a few minutes every black 

 lodger has tucked himself up and is asleep. 



John Cordeaux. 



Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnsliire, 

 August 2, 1870. 



Extracts from a Memoir intituled 'A Monograph of the Alcidce' 



By Elliott Coues, A.M., M.D. 



(Continued from S. S. 2253). 



Genus Synthliborhamphus, Brandt. 

 Size moderate or rather small ; general form stout, compact ; head 

 with or without a crest; bill somewhat as in Brachyrhamphus, but 



