Birds. 4703 



the farm-yard wherein she may hatch and briug up her young. Country people laugh 

 at our London sparrows, which abound everywhere, contrasting their plumage with the 

 pert Passer of the barton. Every citizen knows that for years past a pair of rooks have 

 built at the corner of Wood Street, nearly under the shade of Bow Church, while the 

 crowns on the turrets of the Tower of London are occupied by these sable denizens 

 every year: a considerable colony has long been settled in the large elms in Gray's Inn 

 Gardens, from which they must have a real " bird's-eye view " of the hills that surround 

 London. In a week or two the thrush may be heard in the gardens of Marlborough 

 House : the recent severe weather has caused these birds to suffer in that quarter. 

 Last week we saw a thrush, driven by hunger in quest of food, on the pavement at the 

 back of the Athenaeum Club. But we must return to the sparrows, London's sparrows, 

 the most saucy of birds, as London urchins are the sauciest of boys : — starlings haunt 

 Somerset House and the old buildings of the Temple ; in the breeding-season they 

 may be seen in the Temple Gardens, picking up worms and larva? for their young 

 broods: the sparrow attends as a gleaner to these birds, as the starling follows the 

 rooks: as soon as the old starling has filled its crop and its beak to repletion, and is 

 about to take its flight to its nest the sparrow watches his opportunity, and making a 

 sudden spring snatches the redundant morsel from the beak of the old starling, and, 

 quickly devouring it, looks out for another bird whom he may plunder in like manner. 

 The reader may witness this feat a hundred times on a summer evening. It is curious, 

 too, to see these same starlings feeding on the worms which showers invite from their 

 holes: the bird darts upon the worm ere it has time to retreat, and, tugging with all its 

 might, the mollusk is at length withdrawn, and the devourer, as he tears him from his 

 hole, fairly tumbles heels over head ! We have on more than one occasion noticed the 

 hedgesparrow in the Temple Gardens during the autumn, a locality where ornitholo- 

 gists may scarcely expect to find such a bird. These remarks, it is scarcely necessary 

 to add, apply to the more crowded districts of London, and not to the suburbs. — 

 J. Y. Akerman ; Somerset House, March 20, 1855. 



Note on the Haivfinch.—Dm'mg the late severe frost several of these singular birds 

 were shot at Blofield, in this county, where some fine old yew trees in a garden seem to 

 have had an irresistible attraction in a prolific crop of berries. The man who shot them 

 gives the following account of their habits : they come, he says, " with a very rapid flight, 

 and pitch into the yew trees like sparrows into the ivy ; once there it is almost impossible 

 to catch sight of them, as they keep amongst the thickest foliage." Tt was only by con- 

 cealing himself that he could get a chance shot, as they rarely exposed themselves on an 

 open branch, and on leaving the trees they again flew with great swiftness. — H. Steven- 

 son ; Norwich, April ] 7, 1 855. 



Extraordinary Hens Egg. — Truly we live in an age of wonders; but I hope the 

 oological wonder I have now to relate will not prove as hard of digestion as I fear the 

 ornithological wonder related by Mr. Preston (Zool. 4661), concerning an "Auto- 

 surgical Teal," will prove, even to the most enthusiastically credulous naturalist. The 

 wonder I have to record was related to me a few days ago by the curate of the parish 

 (Hooton Roberts, near Rotherham) in which the occurrence took place, and is as 

 follows: — A hen belonging to a farmer in his parish having laid an egg of unusual 

 dimensions, equalling in size a goose's egg, it was broken, with the idea of ascertaining 

 if it contained, as is frequently the case, two yolks ; but, to the good agriculturist's 

 surprise, he found within this outer shell, and enveloped in albumen, a full- sized, perfect 

 egg, with a strong, hard shell, but whether containing a yolk and white and a germi- 



