Birds. 4943 



Another of these parrakeets, which had been pinioned by a shot without being other- 

 wise injured, was placed in a cage, where, soon rinding his two long tail-feathers to be 

 an incumbrance, he deliberately turned round, pulled them out, and then walked round 

 the cage evidently to try the effect of his contrivance. — Contributions to the Natural 

 History of Labuan. 



On the Habits of Dicceum croceoventer in Confinement. — These little birds are not 

 uncommon in Labuan, and have something the habits of the English Regulus; they 

 haunt low brushwood, and continually utter a low, shrill chirp ; they are very fearless, 

 allowing themselves to be almost touched before they take to flight: the Malay name, 

 which signifies spark-bird, is very appropriate, as when darting about among the bushes 

 the cock bird really looks as bright as a flash of fire. The nest of this species is abojit 

 the shape and size of a goose's egg, and is suspended by the small end from some 

 slender twig of a tall tree ; it is built of fine green moss and a sort of brown byssus, 

 and lined with some white fibre and a few small feathers : one of these nests was found 

 on a tree which was felled in the jungle ; all the young birds, however, except one, had 

 been killed by the fall: the survivor was brought to Mrs. Motley, who succeeded, by 

 great care, in bringing it up, feeding it at first upon rice and banana pulp ; as soon as 

 it was strong enough it was placed in a small cage; though very restless, never being 

 for one moment still, it was perfectly tame and fearless, and would sit upon the finger 

 without attempting to fly away, and though its whole body, feathers and all, might 

 have been shut up in a walnut, it would peck at a finger held towards it with great 

 fierceness : for a long time it would only take food from the hand, but afterwards, when 

 food was given it, it dropped and shook its wings rapidly, as we see a hen partridge 

 occasionally do. At first its beak was short, straight and sharp, but as it grew its form 

 gradually changed to that of the adult Dicaeums ; it also changed its diet, altogether 

 refusing rice, and only occasionally taking plantain ; for some weeks it fed exclusively 

 upon sugar and water, which it sucked up like a humming-bird; it was very fond of 

 bathing in a large shell full of water placed in its cage. — Id. 



Late stay of Sivallows in 1855. — Swallows remained unusually late here; I saw 

 them playing about on Sunday, the 11th of this month [November], since which they 

 appear to have departed : they have been known on a former occasion to have remained 

 until the 23rd. I am right in calling them swallows and not martins, as the brown 

 patch on the throat was clearly seeu with a glass. — George Guyon ; Ventnor, Isle of 

 Wight, November 20, 1855. 



The Bohemian Waxwing in Norfolk. — One of these elegant but most uncertain 

 visitors to our coast was shot, a few days since, at Hofton, in this county. It is rather 

 singular that throughout the last long and severe winter not a single waxwing was met 

 with amongst many rarities. — H. Stevenson; Norwich, November 15, 1855. 



The Palombiere of Bagneres de Bigorre. — When at Bagneres de Bigorre, in the 

 department of the Hautes Pyrenees, in October last, T paid a very interesting visit to 

 the Palombiere, which is about three miles distant from that place. I had previously- 

 seen the Palorabarii at La Cava, in the kingdom of Naples, but only in the winter, 

 when they were not at work, and I had never rightly understood the method in which 

 this chasse was conducted. The Palombiere of Bagneres consists of a row of beech- 

 trees, running half a mile or more in an irregular line along the brow of the hill which 

 forms the north-eastern border of the Vallee de Campan. These trees are planted in 

 clumps of threes or fours, leaving here and there, at intervals, open spaces of from 

 twelve to twenty yards in breadth : these open spaces are occupied by long nets, 



