Birds. 



8719 



the rock pigeon, or sand grouse, of Southern India, for instance ; see my note at Zool. 

 5748, where, in remarking on the plumage, it is said — " harmonizing well with the 

 arid, sandy and rocky character of the desert-like tracts where alone they are to be met 

 with, and where they lie crouched and concealed amidst the chaotic masses of granite, 

 as well as rocks and stones with which these vast and boundless plains are strewn and 

 dotted," Sec. I have only to remark that what has been more recently noticed by Mr. 

 Saxby, in Shetland, tends to confirm my observations on the snowy owl. I need not 

 quote them, as they can be referred to if required, but the following passage occurs : 

 **I was surprised and somewhat startled at seeing one of these noble-looking birds 

 suddenly rise from off the snake-fence within a few yards of me, where it had sat 

 secure and unobserved, its plumage assimilating with the bleached and weather- 

 beaten palings/' There are two ways of accounting for its having permitted this near 

 approach ; the owl was either sleeping or resting in fancied security ; but if diurnal in 

 habit it could hardly at noonday have been so soporiferous as not to have heard me 

 trudging incautiously along through the snow. Its being immediately attacked by 

 crows (as recorded at the time) Lends to show that, like other owls, it is a nocturnal 

 bird, for if habitually on the wing by day it would not be so molested and persecuted. 

 Besides, neither in plumage nor organization does it differ from other owls. Its eyes, 

 too, are those of a nocturnal bird, and ill adapted for sustaining the full glare of a 

 bright Canadian sun, or the reflected rays from fields of snow. It probably preys by 

 ni»ht on the hare, which is of the size of a rabbit, and weighs three and a half pounds. 

 Their being able to swallow a rabbit entire is a wonderful proof of the expansibility of 

 the gullet and stomach, but the swallowing of au auk or two by the glaucous gull, as 

 recorded by Dr. Kichardson, is not much less so. Whether the stomach of the owl be 

 full or empty makes all the difference, and would account lor the apparent discrepancy 

 of authors. Audubon, after remarking that the " stomach is capable of great extension," 

 informs his readers that it can swallow a rat — not entire — but " in pieces of consider- 

 able size, the head and tail almost entire." — Henry Hadjield ; Ventnor, Isle of Wight, 

 July 4, J863. 



Two Wheatears Nests together. — At the edge of a deep burn upon the hill-side, a 

 long strip of turf has given way, and resting against the steep bank has thus formed a 

 small kind of tunnel, about a yard in length. So tempting a situation for a nest 

 attracted the notice of two pairs of wheatears, who, instead of settling the question of 

 ownership "sparrow-fashion," peaceably built their nests side by side within six inches 

 of each other. Each nest contained six eggs, all of which were hatched within the 

 same week; and in due time both broods were fledged. Although one brood left the 

 nest some days earlier than the other, it remained in the immediate neighbourhood 

 long afterwards, accompanied by the parents, who fed them industriously for at least 

 twenty hours out of the twenty-four. The younger brood soon rejoined its former 

 neighbours, and at about eleven o'clock every night the whole party, numbering sixteen 

 individuals, retired to crevices beneath large stones, — at least, I suppose so, for although 

 I was never able to discover the young birds in their retreat, the slightest noise was 

 sufficient to call forth the old ones. But after this had occurred three or four times they 

 were never to be taken by surprise, and were always to be seen flitting restlessly about 

 as soon as I approached sufficiently near to distinguish them. Both ends of the tunnel 

 were used for the purposes of entrance and exit, but I had no means of ascertaining 

 whether each pair of birds kept to their own nest. Wheatears are very abundant here. 

 There is scarcely a wall in this neighbourhood which has not to my own knowledge 



