2494 Birds. 



notions as to the scarcity of birds are likely to arise from their recording circumstances 

 of no importance, I would wish them to pay more attention to the abundance or 

 scarcity of the animals whose occurrence they record ; for by neglecting this they en- 

 cumber the pages of the ' Zoologist/ and, I am sorry to say, expose its supporters 

 and friends to ridicule, from those who are prompt enough to note an occasional blot, 

 while unable to appreciate what is really good and useful in it. — H. T. Frere. 



[My contributors will perhaps appreciate the difficulty I feel in rejecting papers 

 which have been written with the double motive of obliging me and of recording what 

 is supposed to be a novel and interesting fact. I also labour under another difficulty, 

 in common with all residents in large cities, — that of being supposed incapable of 

 forming any judgment about rural matters. I have occasionally written to cor- 

 respondents whom I have thought made communications that were rather unimpor- 

 tant, and not unfrequently have I declined such communications altogether ; but I 

 think I may say that my reputation as a competent editor of the ' Zoologist' has in- 

 variably suffered in such cases. Under these circumstances I can do nothing better 

 than request contributors to ascertain — by corresponding with competent naturalists in 

 their own counties — the value of such observations as may be of doubtful interest or 

 novelty, before sending them for publication. I entirely agree with the Kev. Mr. 

 Frere ; and feel much obliged to him for the matter as well as manner of his note. — 



E. Newman.] 



A Gamekeeper's Stratagem. — I have lately seen a curious method of attracting 

 magpies practised at Peasemarsh. The keeper procured a live hedgehog, and sus- 

 pended him by one leg to a tree or shrub. All the magpies within hearing of poor 

 piggy's cries came to see what was the matter, and in half an hour six were shot. 

 The keeper then went to another part of the wood to practise his ingenuity ; and I 

 returned home wiser than I went. — /. B. Ellman ; Rye, June 13, 1849. 



Moths in Birds' Skins. — In reference to the communication of Mr. Duff (Zool. 

 2451) and your comment thereon, I would beg to observe, that although baking the 

 skins effectually destroys all the larvae or eggs for the time being, yet it by no means 

 prevents the moth from again visiting the same skins. The plan which, after some 

 years' experience, I have found most effectual for preserving my specimens, is to bake 

 the skins twice a year, in spring and autumn, and during the summer months to keep 

 them in tight drawers, with a sponge dipped in turpentine placed in a corner of each 

 drawer. My method of baking is to place the skins in a Dutch oven, or (if large) in 

 what is called a meat screen, and expose them to the front of the fire for a few mi- 

 nutes. I think Mr. Duff will find this a more safe, clean and convenient plan, than 

 that of putting them in an oven, and I should think more effective than when the 

 skins are wrapped in a cloth ; and there is no necessity to take out wires or tow. — W. 



F. W. Bird. 



Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) at Beachy Head. — I brought home with me 

 to-day three of the young of those very interesting birds, the peregrine falcon, which 

 were taken from their nest yesterday at Beachy Head, by a man who descended the 

 perpendicular cliff with a derrick, about 250 feet, the height being at that part about 

 500 feet : the birds — a male and two females — are very fine. The man that obtained 

 them said that round about their nest was literally strewed with all kinds of bones. 

 I watched the parent birds to-day for nearly an hour with much delight, seeing them 

 take their beautiful circular sweeps in the immediate neighbourhood of the recent 

 abode of their young. If any of your readers should be passing, I should be most 



