6014 



Birds. 



would lie still enoV as I said to the person with me, I beat several 

 fields before going to pick it up. On returning for it I was confounded 

 at seeing it rise and fly away, — for I missed it in my hurry and sur- 

 prise at being called on to take my gun off my shoulder to shoot it 

 again, — but I was more surprised still to see the quantity of feathers 

 it had left behind it in two places a yard or two apart. Even the 

 towered bird does not shake off more than a feather or two, even if 

 that, by its fall from a great height; and this bird had not fallen so 

 much as from a height of 7 or 8 feet, and, as the surface on which it lay 

 was smooth, short grass or sward, I could not account for the circum- 

 stance in any way but by supposing the bird had torn them off 

 itself. 



J. C. Atkinson. 



March, 1858. 



Note on the Partridge. — I was much interested in the article on the partridge, by 

 the Rev. J. C. Atkinson (Zool. 5977), and I quite agree in his opinions with respect 

 to the mountain partridge, so called, and the suppression of scent theory, both of 

 which have their advocates in the ' Field ' newspaper. I live in much the same 

 country described by that gentleman, and equally wild ; and I shoot partridges occa- 

 sionally, on opening the crops of which nothing is found but the tops of heather, the 

 same as is found in the crops of grouse ; and where I kill them, the birds possibly, 

 and probably, have never tasted corn of any kind, but there is no difference of plumage 

 that I can detect, though naturally, from the food, they are a smaller bird. The only 

 thing in which I would differ from the Rev. J. C. Atkinson is in the partridge not 

 often nesting on heathery and waste land : I think they do with us considerably, but I 

 have not sufficiently remarked on this habit. It would not be so difficult for the old 

 partridge to convey her active little brood to cultivated ground, as for the wild duck, 

 with her splayfooted offspring ; and with us both duck and teal invariably nest out on 

 the moor, or waste land, and I have known the nests quite half a mile from water, 

 generally on high dry hills, covered with thick heather. There is another vexata 

 qucestio in the ' Field,' which is being discussed at the present time, — whether the 

 male partridge assists in incubation. I should much wish to have the opinion of so 

 good an observer as Mr. Atkinson on this point. I have seen the two old birds 

 squeezed together upon the nest, but the young birds were just hatched out, and ran 

 that same day. Whether the male bird sits on the eggs, in turn with the hen bird, I 

 have not had an opportunity of verifying. — John Spicer ; Foivlei/, Hants, March 13, 

 1858. 



Occurrence of Rare Birds near Barnstaple. — Singular to relate, although the com- 

 mencement of the past winter was with us what may be termed unusually mild, birds, 

 which are rare visitants here even when the weather is more than ordinarily severe, 

 have appeared on our river in some numbers. I refer especially to members of the 

 family Colymbidae. What seemed to be a small flock of Colymbus glaciulis frequeuled 



