16 Birds, 



upon our rigging ; we used to feel great pleasure in watching their 

 arrival, ere we went below for the night. 



One evening, when we were upwards of two hundred miles from 

 land, and our other friends had left our lonely bark, a thrush, but of 

 what species I could not make out, though I believe it was a redwing, 

 took up its quarters on the top -gallant yards. The next evening it 

 returned, and on the following, just at the time when, had it been on 

 shore, it would have sought some favourite tree, it came to us again. 

 Several times during this last day T had watched it till I was weary, 

 flying about at a short distance from our ship, and thought if it had 

 thus spent the three days of our acquaintance with it, how thoroughly 

 sea-sick it must be. We had all this time been running along ten 

 knots an hour, and had probably lured it farther and farther from its 

 home. How it had borne the fatigues of the three days of its cease- 

 less flight around us, and what its after fate, were thoughts that would 

 often recur to us, as each breeze shortened the distance of our own 

 migration. 



Whilst crossing the Bay of Biscay, at our greatest distance from 

 the land, we observed a flock of whimbrels coming towards us at a 

 most rapid rate. It was their last flight — their last eager struggle to 

 preserve life. Some fell short of us, too much exhausted to reach the 

 goal ; others overshot their mark, and a few came down heavily upon 

 the deck, and soon died. As we coasted along the European shore, 

 many birds came on board almost daily, chiefly sky-larks and pipits. 



On my return voyage in the beginning of April, whilst keeping near 

 the coast of Spain, the deck of the steamer was a perfect levee daily, 

 and a scene of the liveliest interest. Whilst the chimney-swallow 

 and the sand-martin continued to fly round and round us, wheatears, 

 whinchats, various species of warblers, redstarts, red-backed shrikes, 

 &c., were constantly passing to and fro, each appearihg to me as if 

 it had put on its gayest apparel for the occasion. I certainly thought 

 that the colouring of their plumage appeared brighter than the same 

 birds do with us ; and I remember we made a similar remark with 

 regard to the birds we saw in Norway. — W. C. Hewitson ; Kings- 

 down, Bristol, October 29, 1842. 



Affection of the Sparrow for its young. A few years ago I was 

 sitting in a cottage, when my attention was attracted by an unusual 

 screaming of a small bird. 1 immediately went to the back door, and 

 saw that it proceeded from a house-sparrow that was fluttering about 

 on the wall, at the base of which was a duck with something in its 

 bill, which it was endeavouring to swallow. Upon attentively ob- 



