Birds. 2989 



passage being a quiet one, it was quite fresh and in the finest condition. It was the 

 most beautiful example of the bird which I have ever seen, and weighed upwards of 

 fourteen pounds. It being determined upon that it should be eaten, it was put into 

 the hands of the cook, and desirous to ascertain upon what it had been feeding, I was 

 present when its stomach was opened. This was found to be crammed with the 

 slender leaves, or, as they are sometimes called, the needles of the Scotch fir (Pinus 

 sylvestris). These were indigested and entire ; and were so numerous as to fill a 

 common table plate. The flesh had a perceptible flavour of fir, and was, moreover, 

 as your correspondent remarks, of a somewhat dry character, and rather coarse in the 

 fibre. The bird was received, so far as I can recollect, in the month of May ; and I 

 have no doubt, that as the summer advances and gives birth to other kinds of food, 

 that furnished by the fir is for the time abandoned. Lord Fife had several of these 

 magnificent birds, both male and female, for some years, in an aviary amid the plan- 

 tations around Duffhouse. The aviary was retired and spacious, and was planted here 

 and there with small pine trees, to assimilate the scene in some measure to that of 

 their natural abode. They bred freely ; but the young ones, after reaching a certain 

 stage, were uniformly cut off by internal disease, produced by a species of worm in 

 their intestines. The eggs were very uniform in appearance, being exactly like that 

 figured by Mr. Hewitson, in his work on the subject. They are remarkably fine eat- 

 ing. In 1829, I saw nine eggs of the capercaillie, which were sent over from Norway 

 to his lordship, to be hatched atMarr Lodge in Braemar. They were completely dif- 

 ferent in appearance from any others of this interesting bird, which have come under 

 my notice. They were without any spots, and of a deep brown colour, with some 

 scarcely perceptible yellowish blotches. In the account given by Naumann and 

 Buhle of the egg of this bird, it is said, " in warm water all the dots may be washed 

 off, and then appears the surface, a uniform very pale rust-yellow." (Eier der Vogel 

 Deutschlands, Taf. iii. 1). Perhaps the eggs to which I allude, had been treated in 

 some such manner. It was found impossible to hatch them. At certain seasons, the 

 male capercaillie casts the skin which envelops his powerful looking bill. It comes 

 off as if it were a sheath, and is soon replaced by a new covering. This was pointed 

 out to me by an intelligent gamekeeper, who studied the habits of the birds, and I 

 have myself seen the operation going on. The circumstance, so far as I am aware, is 

 unnoticed in books. — James Smith ; Manse of Monquhitter, Aberdeenshire, November 

 20, 1850. 



Occurrence of the Avocet (Recurvirostra Avocetta) at Sandwich, in Kent. — A spe- 

 cimen of the avocet was shot at Sandwich, by a gentleman formerly of Lowestoft, on 

 the 22nd of April, 1849.—/. O. Harper ; Norwich, December 4, 1850. 



Occurrence of the Little Bittern (Ardea minuta) in Norfolk. — A beautiful male 

 specimen of this bird was shot at South Waltham on the 11th of June, 1849, and was 

 preserved by Mr. Knights, of this city. — Id. 



Woodcock Breeding in Sussex. — I have recently received authentic intelligence,, 

 that during the summer of the present year, a brood of four young woodcocks was 

 seen at Brede, in the eastern part of Sussex. The spot was a wood, at a short distance 

 only from a house ; they were only partially fledged, but able to flutter a little, and 

 they were discovered in consequence of one of the parents pretending to be crippled, 

 the trick so commonly practised, under the same circumstances, by partridges and 

 various other birds. It is satisfactory to know that no further molestation was offered 

 to any of the family beyond taking one of the chickens into the hand for examination, 



