The Zoologist— Makch, 1871. 2507 



state. It was just so with me : I could not go far without seeing a 

 pair. The hundreds of dead horses may have attracted more than 

 usual, though no carrion of that kind was left above ground 

 for them when I arrived at Metz. On January 29th, between 

 Thionville and Metz, I must have seen upwards of fifty. All the 

 roads here are lined with poplar trees, and these are their favourite 

 perches. Again and again as we rode under we had to shout 

 to make them rise; nor did they always select the upper branches. 

 They are birds of slow flight and sluggish habits. The hard 

 weather, about Christmas, produced a visible diminution in their 

 number; but they began to come back again as soon as the frost 

 abated. No bird varies more in plumage. I saw specimens which 

 were pure white to the claws ; specimens with white bellies • 

 specimens with barred breasts ; and specimens in which red was 

 the prevailing hue. 



Not only in the fields might flocks of half-starved rooks be seen 

 but by the river's side, and wherever the ground was soft enough 

 for their beaks to penetrate. I never got any proof of their 

 attacking the graves, though many nasty stories of insufficient 

 burial were afloat. 



As observed by Mr. Gatcombe, the tree sparrow is the most 

 numerous of all small birds. It totally takes the place of the 

 house sparrow in the country. I only once observed any in a 

 village. 



The cottagers put up pots of earthenware against the walls 

 of their houses for the sparrows to nest in, not by way of 

 encouraging them (as the English encourage martins), but to 

 make them into a pie when the young ones get big enou'^h. This 

 is for the house sparrow, for, as I have said, its congener will not 

 enter villages. 



I frequently saw crested larks (Alauda cristata, L.) pecking 

 about in the snow, and even in a village on a house-top. Their 

 crests are as often depressed as erect ; but never so much so as to 

 be quite invisible. I should, probably, be right in attributing their 

 presence to the hard weather, as Hollandre states that " it appears 

 very accidentally" in the environs of Metz (' Faune de la Moselle' 

 p. 93) ; and Fournal says, "rare in our environs, and of passao-e" 

 (' Faune de la Moselle,' p. 200) ; and Malherbe says, " nous arrive 

 tres accidentellement" (' Zoologie de la Moselle,' p. 45). In Alsace 

 it is rare, but sedentary (Kracner). 



