REPORTED OCCURRENCE OF A GARE-FOWL. 199 
Bow Church spire.* Mr. Harting, in his ‘ Birds of Middlesex,’ 
States that in 1845 there were two nests in this tree. I have no 
record of this circumstance. The same author states that, in 1838, 
a pair of Rooks made their nest on the crown which surmounted 
the vane of St. Olave’s Church, Crutched Friars. 
I know of no Rookeries further East in London,—that is, 
“London proper,’—for we must exclude the outlying districts 
from our limits. 
[There used to be some Rooks’ nests in the burial-ground of St. Dunstan's 
in the Kast, in Tower Street; and in 1876 a pair of Rooks took up their 
quarters and built their nest in Bermondsey Churchyard.—Eb.] 
——_0o-—_ 
ON THE REPORTED OCCURRENCE OF A GARE-FOWL 
IN THE FAROES. 
By H. W. Feipen, F.G.S., C.M.Z.S. 
WHEN on a visit to the Feroe Islands in 1872, I heard that an 
uncommon bird had been killed more than a year previously in 
the neighbourhood of Porkere, in the island of Suderoe. After 
talking the matter over with Herr H. C. Miiller in Thorshavn, he 
gave his opinion that the description which had reached him of 
* During the rough weather of November last the dragon-vane of Bow Church 
was so bent and damaged by the wind that it not only ceased to work properly, but 
became positively dangerous. This being the case, it was determined to take it 
down for repairs; and the work was entrusted to Messrs. A. Proctor & Co., engineers 
and lightning-conductor makers. The height of the spire is 220 feet (some eighteen 
feet more than the Monument on Fish Street Hill) and the length of the vane is 
eight feet six inches. Ladders were placed close against the building and secured 
by a spike at the top; the second ladder being then hoisted from the first with a 
block and rope, the foot being well secured to the top of the other, and the second 
made fast as before, and so on until reaching the top. Three ladders were used to 
get to the vane from the top balcony of the church. Mr. Proctor and his men were 
assisted by one John Ives, of Huddersfield, who has had many years’ experience, 
and who climbed twenty feet of the naked spire, there being no holdfasts or anything 
to assist him, and drew the ladder up after him. A stage was then erected about 
three feet below the ball, upon which a derrick was placed to lift the dragon from 
the spindle. After everything was ready there was a delay of several days owing 
to the violent winds making it dangerous to attempt the work of removal. This, 
however, was safely accomplished on the 23rd November, and about three weeks 
afterwards the dragon and ball, having been repaired and re-gilt, and the spire 
itself re-pointed, they were successfully replaced by the same means as had been 
employed for their removal.—Eb. 
