Birds. 



7843 



I am told of fifty-two eggs having been collected for me by the agents 

 of my late friend, whom I keep in my own employment, but these 

 specimens have not hitherto arrived. Early in the present year, 

 Mons. C. F. Dubois described and figured the egg of the waxwing in 

 the 4 Revue et Magasin de Zoologie^* but without stating whether 

 his example had been obtained from Mr. Wolley, or derived through 

 another source. M. Dubois states that its egg "ressemble beaucoup a 

 celui du Coccothraustes vulgaris et du Lanius ruficeps ; il peut facile- 

 ment etre confondu avec les ceufs de ces derniers." In this latter 

 assertion I do not agree with him. Out of the several hundred speci- 

 mens which form the series I possess, there is not one, I think, which 

 could be taken for that of either the hawfinch or woodchat shrike, 

 though I freely admit there is a likeness to the eggs of both, f 



Occurrence of the Peregrine Falcon in Cambridgeshire. — I have just seen a male 

 peregrine falcon, in its second year's plumage, which fell to the gun of Mr. J.Johnson, 

 of Wicken Hall, Cambridgeshire, at which place it was shot on Monday, November 

 11th, 1861. The markings upon its breast are particularly blight for an immature 

 bird, calling to one's mind, at first sight, that of the hobby : the ash-gray of the adult 

 is becoming distinctly visible upon the back and tail. The visits of the peregrine 

 falcon to this county are at very uncertain periods, and always limited to not more 

 than two or three in the same year. Upon reference to my note-book I find it is 

 seven years since the last capture, so that with us this bird must be considered a rare 

 visitant. — S. P. Saville ; Dover House, Cambridge. 



Capture of the Merlin in Cambridgeshire. — Like the peregrine falcon, with us the 

 merlin cannot but be termed a rare bird. I am indebted to Mr. T. Wells, of Foul- 

 bourn, for the present of a pretty little male merlin, which that gentleman shot 

 at Foulbourn, in this county, on the 7th of November, 1861. This little fellow was, 

 and had been, paying his respects to a number of larks, a t which it was hawking when 

 shot. It is a bird of the year. — Id. 



Note on the Merlin. — Two pairs of the merlin, and no more than two, usually 

 appear each spring to breed on our moors. What is remarkable, each successive year 

 sees the several pairs occupying the same limited district of the moor for their several 



* ' Revue et Magasin de Zoologie,' Fevrier, 1860, p. 64, pi. 2, fig. 4 (miscalled 

 on plate " Bombyciila ccerulea"). 



f Since the above was in type I have seen No. 1, for 1860, of the ' Bulletin de la 

 Socie;e Impeiiale des Naturalistes de Moscou,' which contains an interesting notice 

 by Prof. Alex. v. Noidmann of the Birds of Finland, as observed by his son Arthur. 

 It is therein mentioned (page 21) that the Helsingfors Museum contaius five nests, 

 with eggs, of the waxwing, and that " Studiosus Malmgren " had brought its young 

 from Kajana. 



