12 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
of them are brought in every morning. They are very 
greasy but delicious eating. 
17th—At the market, Corncrake, Tufted Ducks, Pintail 
Ducks, Blackbird, Thrush, and Golden Plover. I bought a 
Common Snipe, which had the outer tail feathers elongated. 
Compared to the Double Snipe it is quite a rarity. 
20th.—I got a Smew before breakfast, and in the evening 
the birdstuffer’s wife brought a Jack Snipe, a Brambling, 
two Siskins, a Whinchat, a Skylark, two Spotted Crakes, a 
Jay, anda Cuckoo. This Cuckoo, and the one I obtained at 
St. Petersburgh, were most curious specimens, Both were 
immature. In the first one the peculiarity consisted ina 
broad mark of reddish brown like a stain all down the head 
and back, and two others similar upon the wings. In the 
second the wings and all the upper surface were mealy- 
colored.* 
21st.—Paid a final visit to the market and got a drake 
Gadwall. I had been led to expect great things from the 
Russian markets. Waxwings and Pine Grosbeaks were to 
be had for a few “copecks” I was told, and heaps of other 
rare birds; but this can only apply to the winter, when I 
have no doubt they would vie with any in Europe. 
I must not omit to say that the Zoological Cabinet at the 
University is particularly worth seeing, containing as it does 
no less than 73,638 specimens. The birds are fairly stuffed’ 
and in good order. I saw a beautiful skin of the rare Red- 
breasted Goose, and a mounted one which was not so good. 
One case was full of bottles of various sizes. Each bottle 
contained a card on which was gummed a bird’s gizzard and 
its contents—gnats, flies, beetles, etc. The Rook, being of 
special importance to agriculture, the stomachs of no less 
© The Cuckoo has been stated to have a pouch, but I have not 
succeeded in finding it, though I have remarked the very gelatinous 
skin of the neck in some specimens. 
