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on Salisbury Plain, a falcon was flown at a carrion-crow, which it struck

after a long flight, and the two birds came down like a parachute to the

ground. The party galloped up, and were about to dismount to take up

the falcon, when the mate of the crow suddenly descended from a great

height, with such velocity that the wings made a whizzing sound like that

of a falling stone, and dashed 011 to the falcon. The force of the blow

struck the hawk from its quarry, which was uninjured bv the grapple in

the air; and both crows flew off unhurt into a copse near.”


We cannot quite understand Mr. Cornish’s statement

that birds swallow grit as a medicine. Grit in the stomach

is necessary to the proper digestion of seeds, for birds cannot

masticate, having no teeth. We understand a medicine to be

something taken to cure an unhealthy condition, and the word

is inappropriate to a thing taken regularly, when the bird is in

good health, to enable it to assimilate its food.


The chapters on migration are chiefly noticeable for the

very interesting account of the late Mr. Seebohm’s discoveries

in the valleys of the Petcliora and the Yenisei. There, in

Siberia, within the Arctic circle, he found the long sought

breeding place of the Grey Plover and some other species, and

revealed a perfect paradise of birds where literally millions of

the feathered race go every spring to rear their young and feed

upon the immense store of the previous year’s berries, strangely

preserved through the winter by the snow.


“The Animal View of Captivity” contains some very

sound observations, and we wish it could be read by all those

who talk hysterically about the cruelty of keeping birds in

captivity.


“ What makes the happiness of wild animals ? The question is not very

easily answered. The abstract idea of liberty certainly does not enter into


it in the case of the greater number.Within certain limits they


are free to choose their life, and presumably they choose that which pleases

them best. In nearly every case this is one of pure routine. It consists in

the daily repetition of a very limited series of actions, the greater number

of which seem to give them satisfaction rather than pleasure, but make up


in the aggregate the sum of animal happiness.It may be


doubted whether, if the food supply were plentiful and constant, animals

or birds would ever care to move beyond the circle in which they can find

enough for their daily wants. ... It may be doubted if a Zoo sparrow

has ever visited Hyde Park, or whether, if the caged birds were given their

liberty, they would leave the Gardens.”


Of all the chapters in the book we most enjoy that entitled

“ Homes for Wild Birds,” and will conclude with a quotation

from it.


“ Most birds that build in holes can be easily attracted by anything

like a box with a hole in the side. Woodpeckers, nuthatches and wrynecks

nearly always prefer to hollow out a hole for themselves; and a few dead



