5(572 Birds. 



from the tree to the earth, in order to kill some grasshoppers which 

 appeared between the swathes of a mown field of grass, and leave 

 them without eating them. The birds are so far from shy that a per- 

 son can easily remain within four or five paces of them without 

 frightening them ; and on the trees they will remain with still greater 

 confidence. 



"The old birds are very careful of their young; and directly one of 

 them calls up comes the male or female to lead it out of harm's way. 

 The young seem able to feed without assistance directly they are 

 flown, and the old ones only lead them about in order that they may 

 find their food more easily. This quick development of the young 

 enables them to leave the old after the expiration of from ten to 

 twelve days ; for I assure you that to-day, while I now write, the 

 greater part of the old birds have disappeared, and the young are 

 already assembled together in flocks. 



" Oratio Antinori. 



Smyrna, July, 1856." 



Birds of the Crimea. By Thomas Blakiston, Esq., Lieut. R.A. 

 (Concluded from p. 5600). 



Gr allalor es. 



I was at a loss for a long time as to what bird it could be, for I was 

 sure it was a bird, which, during the summer nights, would utter a 

 note something between a whistle and a cry when flying over, as I was 

 lying between the blankets in my tent on the hills near Sebastopol, and 

 it was not until some months after that I saw a specimen, which had 

 been killed during the summer, and having turned over the leaves of 

 Yarrell, that 1 accounted for the noise. It must have been the cry of 

 the stone curlew {(Edicnemus crepitans^, which bird was at no time 

 numerous, but might occasionally be met with on the bare hills, except 

 during winter, when it must have been farther South. I shot a fine 

 female from a pair which rose together, while out with my gun one 

 morning towards the end of April. 



On the afternoon of the 7th of September, the wind having been 

 stormy from the north during the day, I observed large flights of 

 what I took for plovers, one of which came very close to me as I was 

 riding, and I observed that all the birds in the flock would turn at the 

 same instant, which they did very quickly. The first specimens which 



