Birds. 3233 



it was one of the most beautiful things he ever saw. My late worthy friend and neigh- 

 bour, Mr. Knapp, author of the ' Journal of a Naturalist,' was quite horrified at a price 

 being put by churchwardens on the heads of tomtits ; but T can answer for the large 

 black-headed tomtit being a mischievous bird. When food gets scarce in November, 

 he commences gnawing at the entrance of the straw bee-hives, and the moment a bee 

 makes its appearance, flies off with it to the nearest tree and devours it piecemeal. 

 In cold weather the tomtit continues this practice from November until March : and 

 in Hampshire the common people have designated this bird the " bee-eater." I have 

 never observed the Parus major, or large tomtit, do this during the summer months ; 

 it is generally confined to three or four months in winter. It is beautiful to see the 

 wonderful instinct of birds in the preservation of their young; I have seen a partridge 

 decoy a dog four or five hundred yards from her brood, pretending all the while to be 

 disabled. One of your correspondents mentions that he saw a rook destroy some 

 young sparrows, it might have been a carrion crow. But gamekeepers of great ex- 

 perience have told me that in very dry seasons, like 1844, when there was little food 

 for the rooks, many of the young ones died from hunger; in that year, the rooks at- 

 tacked the nests of pheasants and destroyed the eggs, for want of moisture. — H. W. 

 Newman ; New House, Stroud, July 18, 1851. 



Occurrence of the Jer Falcon at May field, Sussex. — I have obtained an immature 

 specimen of this bird, shot at the above place during the severe month of January, in 

 1845.—/. B. Ellman ; Lewes, August 8, 1851. 



Regularity in the Movements of the Barn Owl, (Strix flammea). — In the beginning 

 of July last year I was much interested in watching the flights of a common owl, which 

 flew across the lawn every evening. This owl was punctuality itself; when the clock 

 was at five-and-twenty minutes past 8, I used to go to the window, and was sure to 

 see him before two minutes were over. Not only was this bird remarkable for its 

 punctuality, but also for a most extraordinary regularity in its movements ; I always 

 saw it first flying through two elms at the bottom of a field in front of the lawn, (I 

 suppose that it came down from the wood above) ; then it swept close to the ground 

 across the field, and rising into the air as it passed the corner of the lawn, after flying 

 over a small plantation, it again dropped, and skimmed beneath the apple-trees in an 

 orchard, when, having come to its journey's end, it flew in at the window of a barn. 

 For nearly three weeks, night after night, these movements were repeated, the owl al- 

 ways flying through exactly the same trees, and falling at exactly the same places. — 

 A. M. Norman ; Eglesfield House, Yatton, Somerset. 



Golden Oriole. — A specimen of the golden oriole (an adult female) was killed near 

 Bungay during the month of July. — J. H. Gurney ; Easton, Norfolk, August 4, 1851. 



The Rose-coloured Pastor (Pastor roseus) in Suffolk. — A fine -adult male specimen 

 of the rose-colonred pastor was killed at Lound, near Lowestoft, about a week since. — 

 Id.,- June 13, 1851. 



The Rose-coloured Pastor in Devonshire. — A beautiful specimen of this rare Bri- 

 tish visitor was shot at Chudleigh on the 18th instant, and may now be seen by the 

 lovers of ornithology, at Mr. TruscotVs, Bird-stuffier, North Street, Exeter. 



Occurrence of the Rose-coloured Pastor See, at Berry Head, Devon. — I ought to 

 have made known to you before this, that I had a very beautiful female specimen of 

 the rose-coloured pastor brought to me to be preserved, which was shot at Berry- 

 head on the 12th of June last, by a servant of the Rev. Mr. Hogg : and about the 

 same time of the year in 1845, I also preserved a beautiful male specimen, shot near 



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