Birds, 939 



there a few feathers had fallen from the upper one." It is to be regretted that the 

 issue of this experiment was not more satisfactory, as from the nature of the case it 

 was impossible to determine whether the feathers lost from the base of the bill 

 would he renewed or not, though feathers shed from other parts in the act of 

 moulting are known to be reproduced. The rook visits orchards and gardens when 

 cherries and walnuts are ripe, for the purpose of feeding on those fruits ; it also 

 devours grain of various kinds, and frequently commits depredations in potato- 

 grounds, by abstracting the newly-planted sets ; but I entirely concur with those 

 naturalists who maintain that the injuries it inflicts on the farmer and gardener are 

 vastly more than compensated by the benefits it confers upon them by the destruction 

 of noxious insects. — John Blackmail, in Taylor's ' Annals' for March. 



Description of a supposed new Swift. In looking over some bird-skins in my 

 collection procured in the summer of 1843, in Jamaica, I find a swift which I have 

 not hitherto been able to make out, nor could I find any correct description of this 

 bird in Jamaica. I have enclosed a short description of the bird for inquiry ; if you 

 think it worth inserting in ' The Zoologist.' The species is very common in Jamaica, 

 and is probably equally so in South America. The head is brown ; the back, wings, 

 and tail darker brown ; the rump white ; the breast brownish-white ; the lower parts 

 dark-brown ; the bill and feet black ; the hind toe directed forwards. The length of 

 the body is four inches; of the wings, four inches; of the tarsus, § of an inch. — 

 H. J. J. Brydges ; Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall, March 20, 1845. 



Flight of the Swallow. In reference to what is remarked by Mr. Hussey in this 

 month's number (Zool. 870), on swallows, viz., that when appearing on the coast of 

 Sussex late in the season, their course is westward, I can state from recollection that 

 the flight mentioned by me (Zool. 762), was proceeding in the same direction. I 

 have a note made at this place on the 2nd of November last, that on the preceding 

 day, about 8 a.m., a large flight, apparently of swallows and martins mixed, was 

 observed moving from West to east. I did not see them myself, but the observer, on 

 telling me of the circumstance, said that it struck him the more from his having 

 remarked such flights generally taking a contrary direction at that season of the year. 

 Edward H. M. S laden ; March 18, 1845. 



Nidification of the Swalloivs. Various are the situations selected by the swallows 

 of this neighbourhood for the all-important purpose of nidification. In addition to 

 the usual breeding-places, such as chimnies, out-houses, barns, archways, &c, &c, 

 the old and disused coal-pits are frequently had recourse to. Those pits, so plenti- 

 fully scattered over this district, after being exhausted of coal, or as the colliers term 

 it, " brought out," are, for fear of accidents, generally fenced round with a wall of 

 brick, six or eight feet in height, or in many instances a slight paling suffices ; indeed, 

 not a few are left without any protection whatever. To one of the latter description 

 the following anecdote relates. Two collier's boys having noticed that an old pit at 

 Dipton, in the county of Durham, was tenanted as a breeding-place by a colony of 

 swallows, they at once proceeded to secure* the eggs or young, the stronger of the two 

 suspending his companion with his head down the pit, holding him by the feet. All 

 went well, until having secured his booty, the under one expressed a wish to be drawn 

 up, a request his " marrow" found his strength unequal to ; alarmed and agitated, he 

 screamed for assistance, and had an accidental passer by been a few seconds longer in 

 arriving, one, or perhaps both, had paid with their lives the penalty of their rashness. 

 An old thatched shed near the village of Long Benton has been annually resorted to 



