1808 Birds. 



hood. 1 have kept a journal of such things during the last fifteen years, but I send 

 only the last two, these seasons having been so very different, as to give a fair idea of 

 the variation caused by the weather. The place where I reside is not far from the 

 centre of England, so that the time taken by the birds to travel from the coast to the 

 interior of the country may be pretty accurately ascertained. The winter visitants 

 shall follow in due time. 



1846. 1847. 



Chiffchaff March31 Chiffchaff March 26 



Blackcap April 5 Wheatear March 27 



Redstart April 10 Redstart March 31 



Wryneck April 10 Wryneck April 16 



Swallow April 14 Whinchat April 19 



Willow wren April 18 Tree pipit April 21 



Tree pipit April 31 Swallow April 23 



Wheatear April 23 Willow wren April 23 



Nightingale April 23 Cuckow April 26 



Yellow wagtail April 23 Housemartin April 29 



Whitethroat April 23 Nightingale April 30 



Cuckow April 25 Whitethroat April 30 



Goatsucker May 1 Yellow wagtail April 30 



Housemartin May 1 Goatsucker May 5 



Swift May 5 Blackcap May 8 



Red-backed shrike May 16 Swift May 11 



Spotted flycatcher May 20 Red-backed shrike May 11 



Spotted flycatcher May 20 



— John N. Beadles ; Broadway, Worcestershire, June 16th, 1847. 



Extracts from the ' Birds of Jamaica, by Philip Henry Gosse. 1 * 

 [When Mr. Gosse left these shores, on a visit to the beautiful Island of Jamaica, 

 he kindly promised to send me an occasional contribution for the ' Zoologist,' a hasty 

 sketch of his observations as he passed from place to place : his time, however, seems 

 to have been too fully occupied to recollect the hopes he had excited, and now the re- 

 sult of his observations appears in a goodly tome of four hundred pages. It is a choice 

 volume, and almost without an equal in modern natural-history literature. The fol- 

 lowing extracts will be agreeable to all our readers. — Edward Newman]. 



The John-Crow Vulture (Cathartes aura). — " A poor German immigrant, who lived 

 alone in a detached cottage in this town, rose from his bed, after a two days' confine- 

 ment by fever, to purchase in the market some fresh meat for a little soup. Before he 

 could do more than prepare the several ingredients of herbs and roots, and put his 

 meat in water for the preparation of his pottage, the paroxysm of fever had returned, 

 and he laid himself on his bed, exhausted. Two days elapsed in this state of help- 

 lessness and inanition, by which time the mass of meat and potherbs had putrefied. 

 The stench becoming very perceptible in the neighbourhood, vulture after vulture, as 

 they sailed past, were observed always to descend to the cottage of the German, and to 

 sweep round as if they had tracked some putrid carcase, but failed to find exactly 



Loudon Van Voorst, 1847. 



