36 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Pied Blackbird at Yarmouth. — On December 5th a very beautiful 

 Pied Blackbird was shot at Upton, near Acle, a few miles from here. 

 The bird had been observed for some months in the neighbourhood, 

 but up till then had successfully evaded its pursuers. It was fully 

 adult, and, I believe, a male bird; its "markings" on either wing 

 were as evenly distributed as those of a Snow-Bunting ; the tail, 

 however, was not so evenly blotched with white. A feather or two 

 on the right side were mostly white, three others being tipped only, 

 whilst the left tail-feathers were black. I was fortunate in obtaining 

 the bird for my blind friend Dye's small but choice collection of 

 locally obtained birds. — A. H. Patterson (Ibis House, Great 

 Yarmouth). 



Display of female Eunetta falcata. — On that particularly miser- 

 able wet morning (in London, at any rate), January 3rd, I found 

 several species of Ducks vigorously displaying at the Zoological 

 Gardens, including the fine Falcated or Bronze-capped Duck [Eunetta 

 falcata), of Eastern Asia, which has only been imported freely during 

 the last year or two. The display of the males was essentially 

 similar to that of the most typical ducks — Mallard, Pintail, Gadwall, 

 Teal, &c. — though the erection of the full long crest made the head 

 look enormous in size. There was the same rear-up with head bent 

 down, followed by an up-jerk of the hind parts ; the long sickle- 

 shaped tertials, so noticeable in this species, seemed little if at all 

 expanded, and were not so prominent in the display as one would 

 have expected from their abnormal character. But what especially 

 attracted my attention, as I had noted the display of the male of 

 this Duck some time before, was that the females displayed simul- 

 taneously with the males, and with the same gestures. This is 

 commonly seen with the Muscovy Duck [Gairina moschata), but I 

 have never noted it in the case of female Mallard, Teal, or any other 

 species of the typical group to which falcata undoubtedly belongs, 

 its nearest ally being perhaps the Gadwall. Female Mallard have 

 their own ways of communicating their emotions, but not, so far as 

 I know, by gestures resembling those of the drakes. — F. Finn. 



Bark-peeling Habit of Sparrow. — At the back of my lodgings 

 there are several small lime-trees, the branches and twigs of which 

 are much attacked in places by the local Sparrows, which peck 

 away the outer bark and drag off bits of the inner fibrous layer, no 

 doubt to line their nests, as they carry it off by the beak-full ; one 

 may see branches thus stripped for at least a yard of their length, 

 and they were doing this even last month. — F. Finn. 



