Birds. 3275 



friend the author of the 'Journal of a Naturalist.' This bird, in the absence of all 

 the other divinely inspired little choristers of the woods, often sings and puts forth a 

 beautiful, short, wild and plaintive chant, a little like one of the notes of the black- 

 bird, and it sounds doubly beautiful, although with little variation, because he is often 

 quite unaccompanied by any other birds, and in very cold changeable weather. Last 

 winter, one or two sang in December and January close to my house every day for 

 many weeks. I admire Mr. Knapp's work excessively; it is in my opinion alike credit- 

 able to the heart and head of the author : in fact, I read it with delight. But in 

 describing this bird he strangely says, " He seems to have no song, except a harsh pre- 

 dictive note." He also hazards another opinion on the song-thrush, and says they all 

 sing differently. I believe firmly that the only difference is between young and old 

 birds — the same routine of notes, but in young birds differently placed. I fear my 

 late worthy friend and neighbour had not a good ear for music. The song-thrush has 

 eleven variations, the nightingale fifteen. The late Dr. Jenner, the inventor of vac- 

 cination, and author of the first good natural history of the cuckoo, in a conversation 

 with me many years ago, told me he amused himself with changing the eggs of sing- 

 ing birds in his garden and shrubberies, and seeing the young brought up by their 

 strange parents. Knowing from experience that the redstart was a very wild and shy 

 bird, I asked if he ever tried the experiment with it ; his reply was that he had tried 

 and failed : they will forsake their nest immediately if their eggs have been moved. 

 The starling is a bird which seems indued with less of the common instinct of other 

 birds. I have had their nests destroyed from my water-shoots and other places, and, 

 strange to say, in a few hours after the old birds were occupied in rebuilding in the 

 same place. Probably from their great numbers they find a difficulty in getting pla- 

 ces to build in, but I know of no other bird that displays such a want of cunning ; yet 

 their congregating with rooks, which they do constantly, and, I have no doubt, for 

 safety, shows that they do not want instinct of another sort. — H. W. Neivman ; New 

 House, Stroud, September 4, 1851. 



Note on Birds entrapped at a Magpie's Nest. — One of our keepers, in July, disco- 

 vered a magpie's nest, with five young ones; he destroyed the hen bird and her young 

 ones, leaving one in the nest, and setting a trap for the male bird. The next day a 

 hawk (I am afraid the harmless kestrel), which he calls a sparrow-hawk, was in the 

 trap, and so on, till seven hawks of some sort or other were caught in about the space 

 of ten days. The keeper's lad, on going up one Sunday morning, discovered to his 

 astonishment a fine long-eared owl (Strix Otus) alive, which he kept for me some time, 

 but it at length died of swelling in the injured leg. After this a squirrel, a wood-pi- 

 geon, and a starling were trapped in the same nest. The above strikes me as very 

 singular, particularly as the long-eared owl, although formerly common in our large 

 woods, has been of late years, by the free use of keepers' eyes, cunning, guns and traps, 

 become very rare. — T. L. Powys ; Lilford Hall, Oundle, Northamptonshire, October 

 1, 1851. 



Occurrence of the Iceland Falcon in Ross-shire. — My friend Mr. Thurnall has 

 lately received a fine specimen of the Iceland falcon, killed at Inverbroome, Ross-shire, 

 in May last, by Mr. Grant, gamekeeper to A. K. George, Esq. It is a young bird ; 

 weight, 3 lbs. 15 oz. : length, 21 inches : extent of wings, 3 ft. 9 inches. The fol- 

 lowing is a short extract from the Inverness paper : — " When first noticed, the hawk 

 was hunting about on a hill-top, and when shot he had blood on the feet and legs, as 

 if he had just killed some bird. Seeing him take notice of a terrier dog he had with 



