Birds. 



8089 



gists the reperusal of the remarks and suggestions on the subject contained in the 

 fifteenth volume of the 'Zoologist,' for unless about to publish a ' History of British 

 Birds,' of which we have enough and to spare, their time would be better employed in 

 studying the habits than in shooting and skinning birds. Had the hoopoe, for instance, 

 been spared, the reason of the raising and depression of the crest might have been more 

 satisfactorily ascertained or accounted for. And, moreover, we should have heard 

 something of its graceful manner of perambulating lawn or gravel-walks, its mode of 

 feeding, buoyant flight, &c. ; and had it been duly encouraged or protected, possibly 

 its sonorous "hoopoes" might have attracted its partner; and had nidification ensued, 

 what opportunities then for observation and remark ! — Henry Hadfield ; Ventnor, Isle 

 of Wight, June 6, 1862. 



Occurrence of the Honey Buzzard in Cambridgeshire. — A fine example of this 

 rare species was sent me by a gamekeeper, who shot it near Newmarket, Cambridge- 

 shire, on Thursday, the 30th of May, 1862. This noble bird had been observed for 

 some time prior to its capture haunting the neighbourhood, and was thought by the 

 rustics to be an eagle. The gamekeeper informed me that it had created quite a 

 wonderment, the old women declaring that all their fowls, young ducks and goslings 

 would soon vanish. From the appearance of the tail and other portions of its plu- 

 mage I have not the slightest doubt that it had a nest, or was busily engaged in la- 

 bours of incubation. I carefully dissected its craw, and found it contained various limbs 

 and heads of the humble bee (Bombus lapidarius), the common lichen, several elytra 

 of a metallic-coloured Coleopteron (these were too far decomposed for me to clearly 

 determine their species), and one small flint. The humble bee appeared to constitute 

 the chief part of its food, at any rate of that day. The bird is a female. — 

 S. P.\Saville ; June 12, 1862. 



The ^Nightingale and its Nest and Song. — The Rev. A. C. Smith has given a 

 graphic account of the ideas of five of our ancient poets on the nest and song of the 

 nightingale ; but to my mind the notion that this bird has always a thorn in the 

 interior of the nest is only a vulgar error: nightingales build their nests generally very 

 near the ground, among thorns, brambles and long grass, and their nests a little 

 resemble those of the whitethroat, which arrives in England about the same time as its 

 congener in the way of migration. The idea of the nightingale's singing with its 

 breast against a thorn seems quite a contradiction of my own observations, as I have 

 generally found the majority of these birds, when in full song, in the lower part of a 

 nice bushy-headed oak pollard tree, in nut-bushes, at the corner of underwoods or 

 coppices, and often in thick hedges without thorns. The nightingale, from its many 

 plaintive and minor notes, is called by the poet, — 



'* Our mournful Philomel, that rarest tuner ; 

 Henceforth in April I shall wake the sooner, 

 And to her shall complain from the thick cover, 

 Redoubling every strain over and over." 



Mr. Smith is of opinion, with many others, that we have two distinct species of 

 nightingales, one smaller and darker in colour than the other. I have on a former 

 occasion mentioned the great difference of their song in the day-time and at night ; 

 this does not bear a comparison ; and as to the darker colour, birds of three or four 

 years old are always different from those of a year or two. I will instance the plumage 

 of a fine old cock chaffinch with his vermilion breast, and as the Latins say, " Magna 

 VOL. XX. 2 M 



