146 Zoology. 



me, that the probable use is to protect the insertions of the large quUl fea- 

 thers in the carpus from injury. — Anon, July^ 1829. 



Ducks and Hens defending themselves against Rats. — I have now a fine 

 duck, which was hatched under a hen in the spring of 1828, there being 

 seven young ones produced at the time. When these ducks were about ten 

 days old, five of them were taken away from beneath the hen, by the rats, 

 during the night-time, the rats sucking them to death, and leaving the body 

 perfect. My duck, which escaped this danger, now alarms all the other 

 ducks and fowls in a most extraordinary manner, as soon as the rats appear 

 in the building in which they are confined, whether it be in the night or the 

 morning. I was awoke by this duck last spring, about midnight "; and, as 

 I apprehended that the rats were making an attack, I got up immediately, 

 went to the building, and found the ducks uninjured. I then returned to 

 bed again, supposing the rats to have retreated. To my surprise, next 

 morning, I found that ten young ducks had been taken from beneath a hen, 

 and sucked to death, at a very short distance from where the duck was sit- 

 ting. On this account, I procured a young rat-dog, and kept it in the build- 

 ing ; and, when the rats approach, the duck will actually rouse the dog from 

 sleep, and, as soon as the dog starts up, the duck becomes settled again. — 

 M. Said. Oct. 3. 1829. 



Food of the Wild Peacock. — Mr. Ranking informs us that peacocks, in a 

 wild state, feed on pepper pods : a fact which he ascertained in a shooting 

 excursion on the banks of the Luckia, in Bengal, when he flushed a flock of 

 twenty in a grass field. One which he shot had in his crop more than a 

 hundred pods of Chile pepper, the smallest and hottest sort known. — J.R. 



Cock Pheasants. — I do not think it is generally known that cock phea- 

 sants (Phasianus Gallus) crow in concert during a thunder storm. Yet this 

 is certainly the fact ; and their shout may be heard, " awakening the echoes,'* 

 at a distance of two miles. — J. Murray. 



The Nightingale. — This " poet bird," ilfbtacilla iusclnia, sometimes 

 displays an eccentric and novel taste in the materials of her nest. One in- 

 teresting specimen of this kind was wholly constructed of skeleton leaves. 

 — 7rf. 



The Carrion Crow and Hooded Crow. — I was not a little surprised to meet with the following 

 question in Dr.Fleming's late work: — Whether the carrion crow (Corvus Corbne) is different from 

 the hooded crow (Curvus C6rnix). If they are identical, they must undergo changes of plumage to 

 which I hare all my life been an utter stranger. Both are found in England : the hooded crow, I 

 believe, chiefly in the course of the winter ; but, except an accidental and rare visitant, none save 

 the hooded crow is ever seen in Zetland. The change of plumage from the black to the grey, or 

 vice versa, must take place in those who reside, if they do reside, all the year in England, or in 

 more southerly climates ; for a feather is not changed in Zetland. I decidedly question the iden- 

 tity ; and this the more, that T was always struck with the difference of bulk : and, on comparing 

 the weight, characters, and dimensions, given by Dr. Fleming, the want of correspondence is still 

 more strongly marked. They are as follows : — Carrion Crow : Length, 19| in. ; breadth, 26 in. ; 

 weight, 10 oz. ; bill and legs, black ; irides, hazel ; tail, slightly rounded. Hooded Crow : Length, 

 20 in. ; breadth, 39 in. ; weight, 22 oz. ; bill, smooth, black, with tip pale; Irides, greyish brown; 

 female wanting the grey ; youn^, like the female. Here, then, is a difference of 13 in. in breadth, 

 and 12 oz., nearly a pound, in weight. The two statements of the female wanting the grey, and 

 the young being like the mother only, I dare venture to set down as a complete mistake ; which I 

 marvel the more that Dr. Fleming should make, since he did himself reside, I believe, several 

 years in the Zetland Islands. But here my personal knowledge enables me to speak with a posi- 

 tiveness which I otherwise should not ; for 1 have taken and tamed the young from the nest : I 

 can, therefore, eonfidently aver that there is no difference of plumage between the sexes, and that 

 the young are like their parents. — Hypercrito. June 6. 1829. 



A White Blackbird. April 30. — In a blackbird's nest at St. Austell, Corn- 

 wall, in which were two young birds, one of them was perfectly white ; and 

 the nest was robbed by a boy, who, in a scuifle with the owner of the gar- 

 den, killed the bird. It was, however, preserved, and is now in the collec- 

 tion of Mr. Jackson of Looe. — ./. L. Liskeard Vicarage^ Cornwall, Aug. 15. 

 1829. ■ 



Pied Flycatcher and Grasshopper Warbler. — I have met with both these birds in this vicinity. 

 The former has been observed for the last three or four years, but I have not yet seen the nest or 

 eggs. Having slightly winged a male specimen, I was anxious to keep it alive ; but, being at 

 some distance from home, I was compelled to carry it in the crown part of my hat for several 

 hours, and it unluckily died the morning following. The latter is not at all uncommon ; but as it 

 frequents the thickest underwood, is seldom seen, and is difficult to obtain in good feather. The 

 singular, long-continued, sibilous note of this bird may be heard in the evening ; in the daytime 



