8848 



Birds. 



resembled in its tameness. On approaching it I saw it resembled a ringed plover, 

 and, like that bird, it jerked up its head, turned or cocked its eye towards the ground, 

 and hastily swallowed some small insect. I and my friend Mr. Pecbell'gota telescope, 

 and watched its actions for some time. The bird agrees exactly with YarrelPs descrip- 

 tion. There have been considerable numbers of black and common redstarts on the 

 rocks here, but rather shy. I got a specimen of one which I think is a black redstart. 

 There was a glorious sight for an ornithologist yesterday morning. I heard there were 

 six wild geese feeding on the Abbey Green. Wheu I was looking [at them through 

 the glass, I heard a general scream from all the birds in the place. On looking up — 

 for the wild geese uttered a note of warning and the ducks splashed in the water, 

 enough to frighten old Tregeagle himself — down comes Falco peregrinus (a young 

 bird), aud knocks over a moorhen which was flying heavily to the nearest bushes. 

 There was just time to see the moorhen, with its green legs, soaring in the air, when 

 round came the falcon again, having been carried fifteen or twenty yards beyond 

 where he struck the bird, picked up the moorhen and flew over the fence with it ; 

 he then rested for a few minutes on the ground, and appeared to give the moorhen its 

 quietus, and then flew off to the sand-banks, where I found the remains of the prey. 

 I always considered that the way in which a peregrine carried his prey was by clutching 

 it close to its body, but the moorhen seemed to be dragged behind the falcon, as if 

 carried by the legs being extended behind, as I have seen in pictures. There have 

 been about fifteen woodcocks killed here, but the snipes are very scarce. I hope the 

 bird I nOw send you will turn out a rarity." So much for my nephew's report of a 

 day's ornithologizing at Scilly ; he has, as a companion, my friend Mr. Augustus 

 Pechell, who is well calculated to encourage a young aspirant to Natural History to 

 watch objects worthy of notice. I am indebted to him for many valuable communi- 

 cations on Ornithology, and for the addition of one of the rarest British birds to my 

 museum, namely, the browu snipe (Macrorampus griseus), killed at Scilly. In a con- 

 current letter with my nephew's he writes me : — " I- am very glad to hear that the 

 small bird has turned out to be so valuable a one, — Muscicapa parva, — but am grieved 

 that it should have been so damaged by the shot. I am glad Gould will see it before 

 it runs the risk of dropping to pieces. I hope, however, that Vingoe will make it 

 worthy of a place among your flycatchers on its return. You will be glad to receive 

 by the packet a little ringed plover, shot by your nephew on the Pool here, on 

 Tuesday last, the 27th. It uttered a note once on rising, — a short whistle, quite 

 different from the ringed plover's, with (it struck me) less plaintiveness than 

 usually belongs to a plover's cry. The marks given by Yarrell as distinctive of 

 the bird are clear in this specimen, — the white shaft of the first quill-feather, 

 the black beak (the base of the under mandible was yellowish), and the outer 

 tail-feather with the dark patch on the inner web. It is a slender, elegant little 

 bird, and very cleanly shot. We have had some woodcocks and snipes, but neither in 

 any quantity, the wind not having been northerly enough. Scilly is, as you say, 

 ' a trump of a place' for rare birds, and a locality which produces in one week a red- 

 breasted flycatcher and a little ringed plover can be called by no other name. There 

 are six wild geese here. I can find you a young pied flycatcher in the garden, and a 

 chiffchaffor two, perhaps a blackcap, and plenty of goldcrests. With regard to all the 

 pied flycatchers being in appearance young birds, do you not think that the older and 

 stronger small migratory birds make their way to the south with less deviation than 

 the younger ? A moderate easterly wind might affect the direction of the flight of the 



