PRELIMINARY NOTICES. 



iar, being exactly intermediate in character between those, of 

 the wild and the tame Swan: it has the convolution of that of the 

 wild species, but it does not enter the breast-bone. 



Phasianus gallus, or Common Cock and Hen, page 146. 

 The Dorking Fowl is distinguished by having five claws on 

 each foot. 



It appears from Crawford's Embassy to Siam and Cochin-China, 

 that, in the forests through which the embassy passed, they 

 observed several flocks of wild poultry. One of these, not far 

 from a village, appeared so little shy that, at first, it was ima- 

 gined they were domestic fowls : this account confirms the 

 statement of naturalists that the cock and hen came originally 

 from Asia. 



Scolopax gallinago, or Common Snipe, page 161. This bird 

 Is called in some of the provinces, chiefly, it is presumed, Scot- 

 land, Heather Bleuter, from the male making a noise during the 

 breeding season like the bleating of a goat. 



" The cuckoo and the gowk, 

 The lavrock and the lark, 

 The heather-bleat, the muire-snipe, 

 How many birds is that ?" 



Mag. Nat. Hist. 



Answer, Three only. 



Scolopax arquata, or Curlew, page 163. The young of this 

 bird are called in Somersetshire, Checkers. 



Slurnas Vulgaris, or Sterling, page 168. Although I have 

 never met with the nest of this bird in Somersetshire, the bird 

 itself is not uncommon there in the winter. See before, in these 

 notices, Birds of London. 



Loxia coccothraustes, or Hawfinch, page 175. A nest of 

 this bird was found, May 1828, on the bough of an apple tree, 

 at Chelsfield, Kent, and of no very curious construction; eggs 



