74 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



hardly a night " singer," keeps up while at its feeding-grounds (often a field 

 of young turnips) an almost continuous screeching through the hours of 

 darkness. Much bird music of the most attractive and interesting kind is 

 probably unknown to a great proportion of mankind. The mighty rush of 

 a large flock of Wigeon, for instance, heard on a still, frosty winter's night, 

 is a sound which once heard is not easily forgotten. The well-trained ear of 

 the flight-shooter at his post on the lonely marshes, becomes aware of a 

 faint and indescribable, but all pervading, rushing sound, which seems to 

 come from any or every direction ; nearer and nearer it approaches, and 

 again, perhaps, fades away into the distance, as tlie birds turn off' in 

 another direction ; suddenly back they come, with the rush of a whirlwind, 

 and the beautiful whistle, " whee-ou," of the mates (before blended with, 

 and scarcely distinguishable from the sound of a multitude of wings), is 

 heard again and again as the flock sweeps close overhead and again disap- 

 pears into the darkness. But who has not enjoyed listening to the voices 

 of our more familiar birds on a fine still evening in early spring, conveying 

 to the ear, as surely do the swelling buds to the eye, unmistakable and ever 

 welcome tidings and evidence of the gradual approach of the season when 

 " the flowers appear on the earth, the time for the singing of birds has 

 come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land." The distant note 

 of the wheeling Peewits on their return to their nesting-ground ; nearer as 

 hand, perhaps, the jubilant evensong of the Thrush; the weird chattering 

 and plaintive whistle of the Starlings on the topmost twigs of the tall elms, 

 wonderful in variety and execution ; the occasional note of deep solemn 

 bass from the frogs in the nearest pool or ditch : and above all the fine 

 loud burst of melody from the throat of the Blackbird, surely unsurpassed 

 (as far as quality of tone is concerned) by the Nightingale itself, and in 

 whose pure liquid notes the voice of the springtide itself seems to make 

 itself heard. Such music fully compensates us for the annual loss of a few 

 cherries and currants, and makes one wish that " collectors " and birds'- 

 nesters were less abundant.— G. T. Rope fBla.vhall, Suffolk). 



Varieties of the Brambling.— In 'The Zoologist' for 1885 (pp. 346, 

 389) were some notes on black-chinned Bramblings. Two of these birds, 

 both having ivhite chins, have occurred at Yarnioulh — one about tlie 12th 

 October, 188Q, the other on the 3rd February, 1886. They both proved to 

 bo males, and present no variation in their plumage. This absence of 

 colouring seems equally curious with the excess of it in those vigorous 

 examples which have the chin and throat black. Both the birds were 

 obtained by Mr. G. Smith. Although the extent of white is small, it is 

 quite pure. Most birds seem more liable to be pied on the head than 

 elsewhere, and in young Rooks a few white feathers on the chin are not 

 unubual, as pointed out by Mr. R. M. Christy (Zool. 18S0, p. 339j, and 1 have 



