8 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
I passed some birds in the ante-room recently set up, 
which I rather think were from Finland. They were the 
Curlew Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Swifts, etc. Also a 
Short-eared Owl just brought in and skinned, and a 
Hen Harrier, which was no doubt killed in the environs. 
There were specimens of both in the collection marked 
St. Petersburgh. In another ante-room there was an artist 
at work painting a Ruff, with Gould’s “Birds of Europe” 
to help him. I must not omit to mention seeing some eggs 
of the Waxen Chatterer,* with the following testimony to 
an Englishman’s perseverance :— 
“In memoriam Johannis Wolley, quem in regionibus Europe, 
hyperboreis naturce arcanorum per multos annos studiosum, fames, 
frigus, bellum, non deterrerunt, hcec ampelidis garrulce ova musceo.” 
On the 3rd I saw the Zoological Gardens, and bought a 
curious muff made of nine necks of Black-throated Divers 
in their fullest plumage. The gardens are really very poor 
for a great place like St. Petersburgh. They are a private 
undertaking, and the property of a lady. Wild’ Tree 
Sparrows were flying in and out among the bushes, By 
the Rumiantsoff Obelisk I saw a Greater Whitethroat (?). 
Going again to the Museum, the taxidermist, Monsieur 
Wosnessensky, showed me a Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivo- 
rus, L.) just set up. I likewise saw a couple of young 
Cranes, which had been reared by hand. They were a 
yellowish brown colour; the crown of the head not bare; 
the iris dark. 
Before going away I paid my respects to another live- 
bird market, where I saw Redwings, Redstarts, Snow 
© The Waxen Chatterer goes as far south as Algeria. Professor 
Newton, in his fourth edition of Yarrell, “B. B.,” says indeed that it 
does not cross the Mediterranean, but both he and Mr. Dresser must 
have overlooked what Loche says :—“De passage en Algérie de loin 
en loin.” (Cat. des Mammiferes, etc., p. 88.) 
