574 Birds. 



annually resumes his song in autumn in this neighbourhood, and to what influence ye 

 would ascribe this curious habit ? The chaffinch then annually resumes his song in 

 the last week of July, or else early in August, continues to sing at intervals generally, 

 but sometimes also for successive days, he may sometimes be heard in bad weather, 

 and at other times, when the sky is bright and the air warm, he is most unaccounta- 

 bly silent. The young males join in the merriment of the season, but their perfor- 

 mances, deficient alike in compass and execution, are easily recognized ; that of the old 

 males is generally at first " faint warbled " as in spring, but they soon attain their for- 

 mer standard of excellence. These songs are chiefly heard in August and September, 

 a few in October, and still more rarely in the two following months. — Archibald Hep- 

 burn ; W hitting ham, March 16, 1844. 



Note on a singular Noise by a Sparrow. I was very glad to read in the March No. 

 (Zool. 452), a confirmation by Mr. Bartlett, of my observation as to a curious noise 

 made by a cock sparrow. Our impressions, however, differ as to the organ whence the 

 noise proceeded ; but my idea as to its being produced by the tail can hardly, I con- 

 ceive, be erroneous, since T was immediately under the birds, which were only a few 

 yards above my head, and the tree not being in leaf, there was nothing to render my 

 view indistinct. — Arthur Hussey ; Rottingdean, March 23, 1844. 



Observation on a previous communication on the Greater Tit. In the last number 

 I noticed a paper on the greater tit going to yew-trees and "tapping" on the branches 

 (Zool. 449). I am surprised the writer did not discover what the birds went for — not 

 for insects — but for the seed of the yew, of which they are very fond. I see them con- 

 stantly fetching the seeds from the yew-tree near our garden, holding one on a conve- 

 nient branch, and rapping it till they break the shell. — H. Doubleday ; Epping, 22nd 

 March, 1844. 



Anecdote of Rooks. During a long-continued fall of snow a few years since, the 

 rooks at the residence of a gentleman near Oxford being much distressed for food, a 

 quantity of oats were strewn for their relief on the swept line of a foot-path near the 

 rookery. For two days, however, the pangs of famine were unable to overcome the 

 habitual caution of the sable republicans, who suspected meditated treachery under 

 this fair seeming. At length, in the grey of the third morning, before guns or gun- 

 ners were afoot, a forlorn hope of two or three was seen to descend, and warily to ap- 

 proach the provender ; and a sufficient time having elapsed to assure the remainder of 

 safety, the whole flock descended at once to the repast. Since that time the foot-path 

 has been held by a kind of tacit convention to be tabooed during the winter as a feed- 

 ing-ground, and is frequented by the rooks without fear or precaution. — F. Holme, C. 

 C. C. Oxford; April 23, 1844. 



Anecdote of a Partridge. I once witnessed a singular circumstance. Walking in 

 the fields I disturbed some partridges, one of which, after flying twenty or thirty yards, 

 suddenly dropped, in consequence, as I discovered on catching it, of a compound frac- 

 ture of the large bone of one of the wings. When the bird was picked, a shot-hole was 

 visible in the skin, and the shot (No. 6) was afterwards found in the flesh. I should 

 conjecture, that in consequence of the gun being fired too far off, the force of the shot 

 was spent, or a very inferior one, the single grain of shot lodged in the bone without 

 power to penetrate it, no fracture occurring till produced by sudden violent exertion. 

 Long before the above event fell under my own notice, a similar one had been related 

 to me by a gentleman to whom it happened. When shooting in cover on a wet day, 

 his dog put up a cock pheasant, at which he aimed, but his (flint) gun missed fire, wa- 



