4294 Birds. 



Such then are the means employed by birds, as necessity requires, 

 for removing their eggs and young. Ingenious as they daily show 

 themselves to be in a thousand ways, in nest building, in procuring 

 their food, in providing for their young, &c. ; yet, when emergencies 

 occur, they seem to rise above themselves, and astonish man by their 

 clever devices : though timid and easily scared at other times, yet, 

 when the occasion demands it, instead of terror and helplessness, they 

 show energy and courage, and, I may almost add, presence of mind. 

 They seem to know exactly how to act, and they do it in the best 

 possible way. Though they have not reason, yet we need not marvel 

 at their expedients. They are undoubtedly gifted with a large pro- 

 portion of what we call " instinct," or, as the poet has more beautifully 

 and plainly expressed it, 



"The God of Nature is their secret guide." 



Alfred Charles Smith. 

 Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, 

 March 17, 1854. 



Note on Hybrid Gallinaceous Birds. By J. W. G. Spicer, Esq. 



I should wish to correct an error into which your correspondent 

 has fallen in the April number of the ' Zoologist' (Zool. 4253), viz., 

 that a hybrid between the black grouse and pheasant which he 

 reports near Derby, is the first specimen recorded since the thirteen 

 named by Mr. Yarrell in his * History of British Birds.' I beg to re- 

 fer him to the c Zoologist' for April, 1851 (Zool. 3091), where a spe- 

 cimen in my possession is mentioned as having been shown at an 

 evening meeting of the Zoological Society, and which was shot 

 at Henley Park, near Guildford, Surrey, by the keeper of H. Halsey, 

 Esq. This last specimen therefore makes the fifteenth recorded ex- 

 ample of the cross. As you may think it perhaps worthy of insertion 

 in the i Zoologist,' I will add to this communication some notes made 

 at the time with regard to my hybrid bird, and two other hybrids, 

 between the common and golden pheasants shown at the same meet- 

 ing of the Zoological Society, and also shot at Henley Park. 



The hybrid between black grouse and pheasant was shot on the 

 edge of a covert in a wild tract of country not far from Frimley Ridges, 

 and where there are a good many black game still. As far as I can 



