PRELIMINARY NOTICES. 



five, size of a skylark's, of a dull greenish grey, streaked and 

 spotted with bluish ash, olive brown, or blackish brown. 3Iag. 

 Nat. Hist. 



The Tringavanellus, or Lapsing, page 183, is found in many 

 of our English marshes and moors. Shakespeare, in Hamlet, act v. 

 scene ii. has the following line : 



''This lapwing runs away with the shell upon his head.'' 



See page 222. Some of the learned commentators on Shakes- 

 peare, Dr. Johnson among them, have made strange havoc with 

 this passage; the plain truth, I presume, is, they knew nothing 

 of the fact in natural history, that, occasionally, young birds of 

 the rasor, thenatator, and wading tribes, do run away as soon as 

 they are hatched, with the shell upon their heads ; hence Osrick, 

 to which the above line is applied in Shakespeare, is called a 

 lapwing, not being properly informed concerning the business 

 on which he was sent, in other words, was an ignorant young 

 bird. 



The Great American Bittern (see page 200) is said to 

 have the power of emitting light from its breast equal to that 

 of a common torch, which illuminates the water so as to enable 

 it to discover its prey. Mag. of Nat, Hist, vol, ii. page 64. It 

 is also suspected that other birds of the ardea genus in this 

 country have similar properties ; yet we are not aware that any 

 one has observed them : the breast of the common heron, 

 ardea major, has a space void of feathers, but covered by a tuft 

 of down, the use of which is not at present known ; is it for the 

 purpose of emitting light? See Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 206. 



Mergus senator, or Red-breasted Merganser, page 210. 

 A nest of this bird was found by Mr. Selby and Sir W. Jardine 

 upon an island in Loch Awe, in Argyleshire, in June 1828 ; it 

 was made of moss mixed with the down of the bird ; in struc- 

 ture and materials it resembled that of the eider duck; it con- 

 tained nine eggs of a rich reddish brown colour. Mag, Nat. Hist. 



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