380 Birds. 



the space around the eye, and between it and the beak, is dark ash 

 grey. The neck, breast and belly white, slightly tinged and patched 

 with brown ; the belly and thighs having also broad streaks of dark 

 brown. The upper part of the wings white, slightly patched with 

 brown ; the secondaries and tertials brown, tipped with white. The 

 tail is barred with two shades of dark brown, and tipped with light 

 brown. The bird was shot at Gawdy-hall wood, near Harleston, in 

 Norfolk, and is in the Norwich Museum. 



The transition from this to the next specimen figured is very easy. 



Figure 6. 

 Though alike in the markings of the head and neck, the breast 

 and under parts of this bird retain no vestige of the brown patches 

 which distinguish that last described. The dark streaks on the same 

 parts are also much narrowed, and the feathers on the upper parts of 

 the wings are now only tipped with white, which is also the case with 

 the secondaries and tertials* The tail resembles that of the last. This 

 bird was killed at Horning, in Norfolk, in 1841 ; and is also in the 

 Norwich Museum. It is labelled " Adult male." 



I have endeavoured, in the above descriptions, to trace the order and 

 connexion of the remarkable changes of plumage to which this spe- 

 cies is subject; but at the same time I have considerable doubts as to 

 the entire correctness of the arrangement which I have adopted. 



William R. Fisher. 

 Great Yarmouth, August 25, 1843. 



Notes on the Nests of Birds. By Robert Dick Duncan, Esq. 



It gives me much pleasure to know that you intend continuing 

 ' The Zoologist' during the year 1844. A few years ago, although a 

 person were as utterly unacquainted with the realities of Nature as a 

 nun ; though he had never stirred above a mile from home ; though 

 he could not distinguish a breccia from a true conglomerate, or an in- 

 sect from a worm ; yet if he could repeat a long list of orders, genera 

 and species, he was esteemed a naturalist — a star of the first magni- 

 tude. But now the world is changing ; and I trust that this change 

 will in no slight degree be hastened by the continuance of your 

 periodical. 



Perhaps there is no race of creatures in the whole world which can 



