1806 Birds. 



in the lungs of all vertebrate animals, the spaces between the capillaries were much 

 less than the diameter of the capillaries themselves, and in the eel they were so close 

 together, that a tolerably good defining power was required to separate them. The 

 author also exhibited a lamella from the gill of a skate, in which the capillaries were 

 much larger and more plainly seen than in those of the eel. He then concluded by 

 stating that he had been acquainted with this arrangement of vessels for some years 

 past, but never having seen it described in works on the anatomy of fishes, he was in- 

 duced to lay the same before the Society, as without the aid of the microscope the de- 

 licate arrangement of the respiratory vessels in these animals could never have been 

 witnessed. — J. W. 



Occurrence of a Pine Marten in Surrey. — At a meeting of the Surrey Natural 

 History Society, held at the Museum, Guildford, on Thursday evening, the 3rd of 

 June, R. A. C. Austen, Esq., one of the vice-presidents, informed the Society that a 

 pine marten had been recently caught in a wood near Blackheath, Albury, by Edward 

 Bray, Esq., of Shere. — A. Irvine ; Guildford, June 4th, 1847. 



The Gyr-Falcon. — " As soon as I got on shore, I saw a multitude of small birds of 

 prey. They keep in flocks, like our sparrows, hopping about everywhere, and perching 

 on hedges and housetops. I anxiously wished for an opportunity to make myself bet- 

 ter acquainted with one of them. Presuming that shooting in the town might be dis- 

 pleasing to the inhabitants, who would naturally claim to themselves a sort of exclu- 

 sive sporting right, I took my gun down to the sea-shore, and there shot one of the 

 birds. It belonged to the gyr-falcon family (Polyborinidm) , and was one of the species 

 peculiar to South America (Polyborus chimango, Vieil.). The whole of the upper part 

 of the body is brown, but single feathers here and there have a whitish-brown edge. 

 On the tail are several indistinct oblique stripes. The under part of the body is 

 whitish-brown, and is also marked with transverse stripes feebly defined. The bird I 

 shot measured, from the point of the beak to the end of the tail, 1 foot 6^ inches. 

 Though these gyr-falcons live socially together, yet they are very greedy and conten- 

 tious about their prey. They snap up, as food, all the offal thrown out of doors ; and 

 thus they render themselves serviceable to the inhabitants, who consequently do not 

 destroy them. In some of the valleys of Peru I met with these birds again, but very 

 rarely, and always single and solitary. I continued my excursions on the sea-shore, 

 but with little satisfaction, for the pouring rain had driven animals of every kind to 

 their lurking holes." — Tschudi's Travels in Peru. 



Occurrence of Montagu's Harrier near Kingsbridge. — I beg to inform you of the oc- 

 currence of a fine mature female specimen of Montagu's harrier (Circus Montagui) ; the 

 bird was shot near Kingsbridge on the 14th inst., its weight was ten and three-quarter 

 ounces, length eighteen inches, breadth three feet four inches and a half. I found on 

 dissection, the largest of the ovary to be about the size of a pea, and should suppose 

 the bird would not nest until late in the season ; to my astonishment, its stomach con- 

 tained parts of the shells of eggs of small birds, which I suppose to be skylarks and 



