360 Birds, 



single for so long a time ? Is it from inability to do as other birds do in this respect 

 also ? Truly it lias good ground of complaint against us ! for we go nigh " to write it 

 down an ass ; " and one, moreover, of no common dulness. But since facts are more 

 convincing than argument, would it not be well to test the truth of the above suppo- 

 sitions by having recourse to experiment ? Three instances of this strange conduct of 

 the grey wagtail's have been already recorded in ' The Zoologist; ' it is not, then, by 

 any means improbable, that future instances may fall under the notice of some one 

 who reads these observations. In such case might not something of this kind be tried? 

 On the insect hypothesis. — A small fly or two might be fixed by means of gum (taking 

 care to touch only their feet) to the window visited, and their places shifted from time 

 to time. If the bird confined his (or her) attention to those parts of the window to 

 which the flies were attached, and continued to do so notwithstanding their change of 

 place, there would be good ground for thinking his appetite governed his motions. On 

 the other hypothesis. — A pane of glass might easily be converted into a temporary 

 mirror, by placing behind it some black substance : and each pane in turn might be 

 thus treated. Then if the wagtail confined his inspection solely to the prepared pane, 

 it would be obvious that he was attracted by the reflection of his own form. But, on 

 the other hand, should he pay little or no attention to the insects or the looking-glass 

 in preference to the other parts, or to one particular part of the window, it would seem 

 that both the suppositions must be relinquished as untenable. When I commenced 

 these notes I had no intention of proposing any new mode of explanation ; but while 

 writing, I have recollected an account I read some years since of a method of lark- 

 catching practised in (I think) the South of France, which perhaps may afibrd a clew 

 to the mystery of this habit of the wagtail's. A piece of wood, having fragments of 

 looking-glass fixed to it, is made to rotate about an axis by means of a long string. 

 When a flock of larks is seen, this instrument is set in motion ; the birds, catching 

 sight of it, appear to be as it were fascinated, and settle down on the ground near the 

 object which has influenced them : they are then easily taken in the nets set for that 

 purpose. Without attempting to account for the eff"ect produced by this simple appa- 

 ratus upon the faculties of the lark or enquiring in what manner it is produced, I would 

 suggest that possibly the windows visited by the wagtails may have been accidentally 

 adapted to produce a somewhat similar effect upon them. I am writing in a place at 

 which I have no means of access to books, and therefore cannot give the references I 

 otherwise would. I think I have seen a similar account in one of the series of Hone's 

 ' Every-day Book.' Writing from memory I may have made mistakes, but I think I 

 am, in the main, correct. In the second and more minute account, we find that the 

 bird did not begin to fly against the glass until the blind had been drawn up ; and 

 this would seem to give additional likelihood to my suggestion. But I will not at 

 present add more. The subject seems to me to carry much of interest with it, and to 

 be worthy of close investigation ; and I hope we shall yet hear that it has met with it. 

 /. C. Atkinson ; Hulton, Berwick -on-Ticeed, September 9, 1843. 



Anecdote of the Domestic Pigeon settling on trees. White says that the house-dove 

 is very rarely seen to settle on trees, which is, I admit, generally true. A friend of 

 mine, however, near here, has a pigeon-house close to some immense elms, which in fiict 

 overhang the building, and in the branches of which the pigeons are very often seen 

 to settle on a sunny day. This I have myself witnessed, and have seen them pursu- 

 ing one another over the larger limbs, and hopping from bough to bough. — W. Hewett. 



Anecdote of a Peacock killed by a common Hen. The following is a verbatim 



