7880 



Birds. 



perfectly naked and perfectly blind. T need scarcely mention, except for the edifica- 

 tion of the few non-naturalists who may peruse these lines, that the female hare makes 

 no nest; that she tears no fleck from her body ; and that her young are brought into 

 the world with an abundant covering of hair, and possessed of eyes remarkable for 

 wide-openness, brilliancy and beauty. Before the little world of naturalists will 

 believe in the hybridity of these leporines a number of very difficult questions must be 

 answered clearly and definitely: — 



1st. Who raised the first litter of leporines? 



2nd. Where were they raised ? 



3rd. Was the male or female parent the hare? 



4th. By what management did the breeder achieve so unnatural a combination ? 



5th. What was the period of gestation in the first instance; and. what is it now, 

 when the leporines breed freely among themselves ? 



6th. How does the breeder account for the disappearance of all hare characters, 

 except some slight approach in size and colour, which all naturalists agree in 

 regarding as totally unimportant? 



Until these questions are satisfactorily answered I shall continue to regard 

 leporines as a breed of tame rabbits, differing no more from the common wild rabbit 

 than do the lop-eared, the silver sprigs, he, &c. — Edward Newman. 



Ornithological Notes from Edinburgh. — On the 13th of last month a bird-catcher 

 showed me several hawfinches, bramblings and crossbills, which had been caught by 

 his boys near Morningside, about two days previously: one of the hawfinches, a very 

 fine male, having died soon after its capture, I took it away as a specimen, and on 

 examining the stomach found that it contained nothing but a few fragments of 

 barley and a little coarse sand. On the 15th, the same man brought me four curlew 

 sandpipers and three dunlins, all of which he killed at a single shot on the Fife coast: 

 he said that they were in company, with many others, feeding upon the sand, close to 

 the water's edge. On the 19th of the present month a friend of mine picked up the 

 remains of a little auk upon the sands at Portobello: it was a female, and had 

 apparently been dead for at least a week ; the stomach was quite empty. A few days 

 ago I observed nine snow buntings feeding among the bushes which cover the face of 

 the steep rocks upon the south side of the Calton Hill: the ground being frozen at 

 the time the poor birds were probably led by hunger, rather than by choice, to seek 

 their food in^this unusualj situation. — Henry L. Saxby ; 5 4, Gilmore Place, Edin- 

 burgh, December 28, 1861. 



Occurrence of the Golden Eagle near Driffield. — Early in this month I received a 

 fine adult golden eagle in the flesh, from Skerue, near Driffield, shot by J. Kemp, 

 gamekeeper to A. Bannister, Esq., of Hull. The bird in question is a male, and 

 measures from beak to end of tail 2 feet 9 inches, to the end of toes 2 feet 6 inches, 

 spread of wings 6 feet 7 inches ; weight 8 lbs. 5 oz. I have also had lately brought 

 me, to be preserved, stormy petrels, little auks and the gray phalarope. — Alfred 

 Roberts; King Street, Scarborough, December 27, 1861. 



Occurrence of the Merlin near Alton. — Last week a female merlin was shot at 

 Chawton, about a mile from here. I have never known the merlin shot in this 

 neighbourhood before.— Philip Crowley ; Alton, January 7, 1862. 



