The Zoologist— November, 1874. 4231 



Ornithological Jottings. By C. B. Carey. 



In January the blackbirds were in full song. The weather was 

 warm though wet and windy : this leads us to suppose that birds 

 are affected by the weather, for in the frost and snow miserable 

 are the twitters of the half-starved birds. In February they began 

 breeding, for in the first week in March a blackbird's nest was 

 lound with three eggs in it. Therefore, if the winter were warmer 

 should we have the birds singing all the year round ? It seems to' 

 me that it is not because it is spring that they sing, but because 

 there is then warmth and food; and that in mild winters, there 

 being more food they are less pinched, and consequently sing as 

 they do in the early spring. 



In March I picked up a kittiwake, by the beach, where it had 

 evidently been killed by a hawk. The eyes and brains had been 

 eaten out, its leg was broken, and it was wounded in the body 

 It was in very much the same plumage as that one described by 

 Mr. Cecil Smith in his 'Birds of Somerset,' which was picked up 

 at Crowcoombe Heathfield. Its bill was lemon-colour at the tip 

 of the upper and lower mandibles, the rest dark olive. The head 

 was much battered, but the forehead and chin were white, while 

 the top of the head was gull-gray. The breast, tail-coverts, and 

 all the under parts were white. The back, scapulars and wing- 

 coverts gull-gray. The four first quills tipped with black, the 

 outer web of the first one black all the way down. In fact, it was 

 in winter plumage, not having begun to change, though it was the 

 end of March. 



In April I saw a Dartford warbler at Couch's shop ; it had been 

 knocked down by a stone. I also saw a bullfinch which had 

 been brought in : this bird is much more common in Jersey than 

 it is here. 



On the 19lh of April I watched the swallows arriving from the 

 south-east: they seem'ed to have sent some on as scouts, for they 

 flew past by ones and twos every few minutes. They did not stay 

 near here, but went over to the other side of the island, where a 

 day or two afterwards I saw numbers of them. They did not 

 appear here till some time later. 



In May an adult male marsh harrier was found in Herm ; 

 unfortunately it got into the hands of some person who, I believe^ 



