PRELIMINARY NOTICES. 



Messrs. Vigors and Broderip, who drew up the Guide to the 

 Gardens, state that " although the Mil, body, and wings of this 

 bird exhibit great strength, the legs and claws are, compara- 

 tively speaking, feeble. No Vulture has talons formed for 

 seizure ; the birds of this group feed upon carrion and not, like 

 the other raptorial birds, on living prey. Our condor is cer- 

 tainly not the Roc of our old friend Sinbad." [Arabian Nights.] 

 They add, the feats which have been related of the condor may 

 with more apparent justice, be attributed to some of the eagle 

 tribe, whose bodily strength is equal to that of the vultures, 

 whose talons are adapted to seizure, and vvho feed on living 

 animals. The Harpy exhibits much greater strength of limb 

 than the bird before us. See a preceding notice and also 

 page 104- 



Muscicapa atricapilla, or Pied Fly Catcher, page 370, 

 breeds in the woods near Ullswater ; but it is suspected to be, 

 nevertheless, a migratory bird, it not being seen in Lancashire 

 before April nor later than September. It is also, according to 

 the same authority, (Mr. Blackwall, in Mag. Nat. Hist.) a 

 bird of some song, the notes of the male, which are sometimes, 

 though rarely, delivered on the wing, being pleasing and varied. 



The Didus, or Dido, of which three species are described in 

 page 383, is now, in all probability, extinct: for although no 

 doubt is entertained that this tribe has existed, and on the 

 islands mentioned in the text, yet, by the latest researches, no 

 living specimens of it can be found in any of the Islands named ; 

 nor has it been discovered any where else. See the Zoological 

 Journal. 



The Tanager , s Songj page 409, set to music by Mr. Jacob, 

 has been published by Mr. Power, of the Strand. 



I avail myself of the corner of a page, to say that Mr. 

 Yarrell laid a valuable paper on the Trachea of Birds, a short 

 time since, before the Linnean Society, and which will, no doubt, 

 in due time, appear in that Society's Tran c actions. 



