562 Birds. 



raent and sustenance to the bird. The powerful digestive organs of most of the berry- 

 and seed-eating tribes seem alone sufficient to warrant this conclusion, and experience 

 generally corroborates it. In those species, however, which live partly on berries and 

 partly on soft insect food, like the thrushes, I am inclined to think that in some instan- 

 ces seeds pass through unhurt, particularly those which are of a hard texture, and 

 which are enclosed in a pulp, as the berries of the elder and mountain-ash, and per- 

 haps those of currants and gooseberries &c. In the course of my own observations, I 

 have found seeds of the elder entire in the intestines of thrushes and blackbirds, and 

 I have also found haw-stones in those of the latter bird. It is not at all surprising 

 that the haw should be able to resist the action of the blackbird's stomach, as it is of 

 so very hard a nature, and I should be inclined to say that in general it does so. I 

 am also of opinion that the seeds of the holly, which are somewhat similar to those of 

 the haw, generally escape the grinding power of the gizzard. In some fruit-eating 

 tribes, as the Ampelidae, which have a wide and short intestinal canal, seeds of all kind 

 may and probably do pass through uninjured ; and in omnivorous birds, as the crows, 

 some seeds may casually and accidentally escape, but in the truly granivorous tribes, 

 everything is reduced to a paste. I am therefore inclined to come to the conclusion, 

 that the dissemination of the plants by birds is the exception and not the rule. These 

 observations will, I trust, induce some one more qualified than I am, to come forward 

 with his experience on the subject, and discuss the matter fully. The pages of ' The 

 Zoologist' afford a good field for friendly debate on this and such-like controverted 

 points on Natural History. — Id. 



Note on the Honey-buzzard rearing its young in this country. I have great plea- 

 sure in recording in the pages of 'The Zoologist,' an instance of the honey-buzzard 

 (Pernis apivorus) having reared its young in this country. I find by my memorandums 

 that five honey-buzzards were procured in this district in 1841. Of these five, two 

 were picked up dead on the sea-shore; a third was shot at Blaydon, on the 24th of 

 September, and the other two were brought to Mr. James Pape, game-dealer, Colling- 

 wood St., on the 26th of August ; these two last mentioned are males, and of a uni- 

 form dark brown, and had evidently not left the nest many days ; they could not pos- 

 sibly have flown more than a few yards, and were exactly in the state of plumage in 

 which we find young rooks when shot from the nest-edge in spring. They now form 

 part of the valuable collection of our talented townsman, Mr. John Hancock. I have 

 since ascertained that these two birds were shot on the estate of John Atkinson, Esq., 

 of Newbiggin, about two miles from Hexham, by Edward Dewison, then in Mr. At- 

 kinson's employ as coachman : he shot them off the tree in which the nest was built. 

 The old birds were frequently seen, but were so shy that he could not procure them. — 

 Thomas John Bold ; 24, Cloth-market, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 



Note on the Nest of the Long-horned Owl occurring in Trees. Observing in the last 

 number (Zool. 492), an enquiry from a correspondent as to whether " an owl's nest 

 had ever been placed upon the branch of a tree : " I have thrown together a few notes 

 on the nidification and habits of the long-homed owl {Strix otus) y which have come 

 under my own and my brother's observation, and which may perhaps tend to remove 

 Mr. Greenwood's doubts on this question : the long-horned owl being the only British 

 one which does I believe invariably rear its young in the position referred to. This 

 handsome species is rather generally distributed through the fir-woods within six or 

 seven miles around York, taking possession, about the middle or end of March, of the 

 deserted nest of the crow, ringdove (and perhaps that of the squirrel), in a Scotch or 



