564 Birds. 



Anecdote of the Common Wren. I am at any time glad to have it in my power to 

 record, for the benefit of my brother naturalists, any fact that appears not to have been 

 noticed bv others. As the following little incident, pertaining to the habits of one of 

 our most familiar birds, is not mentioned by Selby or Yarrell, I may reasonably pre- ' 

 sume that it has not been noticed by these distinguished naturalists. Walking the 

 other day in Leven's park, my attention was arrested by the singular movements of a 

 common wren ; and being so situated that I had an excellent opportunity of minutely 

 watching its operations, I distinctly observed it to walk over head into the water by 

 the shallow margin of a brook, as if in search of insect food. This action it repeated 

 several times in quick succession, and then, as if it had secured the object of its search, 

 darted off into a neighbouring bush. I will not be so bold as to advance what some 

 have advanced respecting the dipper — that it actually walked at the bottom of the wa- 

 ter, for indeed its movements were too rapid to admit of any such subaqueous prome- 

 nade ; but that it was really submerged, and that for three or four times, I take upon 

 myself unhesitatingly to repeat : as, from the position I occupied with respect to the 

 bird, and at only a few yards distance from it, I could not possibly be mistaken. As 

 I cannot suppose this habit is peculiar to the wrens of my neighbourhood, I am in 

 hopes that others of your correspondents may have an opportunity of verifying my as- 

 sertions. Apropos of these interesting little creatures. I find it stated by Mr. Yarrell 

 in his excellent work on British Ornithology, that " Sir W. Jardine and Mr. Selby, 

 both mention the circumstance of several of these diminutive birds passing the night 

 together, in the same aperture." I beg to state in confirmation of this, that several 

 winters ago, T was tempted to examine a small hole in the side of a moss-covered her- 

 mitage, which I had reason to believe was frequented by a colony of wrens : and going 

 thither one evening, when there was a deep snow on the ground, I placed a small 

 hand net over the hole, and actually secured ten or a dozen that had repaired thither 

 for a comfortable night's lodging. Although the little captives were soon afterwards 

 set at liberty, I am not aware that their rest was again disturbed, or that any search 

 was afterwards made for them in the snug little hiding-place they had made for them- 

 selves. — S. H. Haslam ; Greenside Cottage, Milnthorpe, April 15, 1844. 



Note on the Hoopoe nestling in Surrey. A short time since, while staying in the 

 neighbourhood of Dorking, I was informed by a friend who resides there, that in the 

 summer of 1841, he had some strange eggs brought to him, which had been found in 

 the hollow of a tree in an orchard, and which proved to be the eggs of that very pret- 

 ty and rare straggler the hoopoe (Upupa Epops). The old birds were not shot, but 

 they have never since been observed to visit the spot from whence their eggs were ta- 

 ken. But few instances have, I believe, been known, of hoopoes breeding in this 

 country. Although a year does not pass without a specimen or two visiting Kent, yet 

 I have never been able to hear of a well authenticated instance of their nidification in 

 this county. One cause of their so rarely breeding in England, may probably arise 

 from the fact of their being such peculiar-looking birds as to attract the observation of 

 those who would not otherwise notice them ; and they are consequently generally shot 

 or driven away. White mentions a pair which visited his garden, where, to use his 

 own words, " They used to march about in a stately manner, feeding in the walks ma- 

 ny times in the day, and seemed disposed to breed in my outlet, but were frightened 

 and persecuted by idle boys, who tvould never let them be at rest. v The hoopoe, which 

 is an African bird, from whence it migrates in the summer into Europe, is by no means 



