NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 197 
Welsh bordering shires, if it be not a permanent resident in 
them.” 
Referring to the Chaffinch, and to the alleged separation of the 
sexes during winter, he says :— 
“‘T have been observing the Chaffinch, one of our most familiar 
birds, for several years throughout all the winter and summer, and 
have never known the sexes so to separate. In all cases where there 
were flocks, the cocks and hens seemed to be in about equal numbers, 
or at least no difference worth noting; and Mr. Knapp, the author of 
‘The Journal of a Naturalist,’ bears similar testimony of them. He 
says :—‘ With us the sexes do not separate at any period of the year, 
the flocks frequenting our barn-doors and homesteads in winter being 
composed of both.’ Mr. Knapp’s observations were made in Gloucester- 
shire, on the left bank of the Severn; mine chiefly in the valley of the 
Wye. Soif those of Linneus and Gilbert White be correct, then the 
habits of the birds in these western shires must differ from what they 
are elsewhere, even in our own islands—a somewhat singular circum- 
stance.”’ 
He suggests that the flocks seen by Gilbert White were 
supposed to be “ almost all hens,” because the young cock birds of 
the year had not at that season attained their characteristic 
plumage. 
Referring to the Selborne naturalist’s statement that the 
Carrion Crow goes in pairs the whole year round, he says :— 
«‘This is an error that, with many more in relation to the habits 
of this bird, has been perpetuated by Yarrell and most other English 
ornithologists, so as to become the stereotyped phraseology of the 
encyclopedias. I am able to state for certain that the Crow never 
goes in pairs, save during the days of nest-building. If seen thus at 
any other period of the year, it is because the nest has been robbed, or 
the brood in some way destroyed, leaving the bereaved parent birds 
alone for the length of another twelvemonth. But when successful in 
hatching and bringing up of their young, there is no separation nor 
pairing. Instead, the whole family keeps together—though apart from 
all others—throughout the summer, autumn, and winter, and till 
nesting time in spring. To verify this habit, I have been for years 
observing the behaviour of this bird, and can now vouch for it as a 
fact. My opportunities are excellent, as the Carrion Crow is common 
in my neighbourhood, more than one family having their cantonments 
near.” 
