1 1 8 The Museum Gazette 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE MUSEUM GAZETTE. 



Vol. I., part i, page 14. — Would it not be more correct to say here, 

 Head of " Roe-deer," or " Roe-buck " ? 



Do., page 18. — " On crows? Surely crows are migrants. Rooks 

 migrate — hooded crows cross the North Sea. Even jackdaws and 

 choughs have been known to accompany great flights of rooks at 

 times. Undoubtedly ravens collect together, and roost in numbers 

 together at favourite winter resorts, and often in far larger numbers 

 than the whole district could yield. 



Do., p. 24. — Lightning and beech trees. It is said beech trees are 

 "more shattered," &c. But the point is, how often are beech trees 

 struck by lightning ? I cannot recall one. 



J. A. Harvie Brown. 



We will answer our esteemed correspondent seriatim, and we 

 sincerely hope that he will continue to favour us with his criticisms, 

 for they are suggestive and valuable. 



As regards the Roe-buck's head, the suggested alteration would be 

 more detailed, but not a whit " more correct? It was especially desir- 

 able to avoid distracting the reader's attention by needless detail, and 

 to allow it to concentrate on a condition common to the deer tribe. 

 Our object was to illustrate fur on the antlers, not the physiognomy 

 of any particular deer. 



As to the migratory habits of Crows, our correspondent refers to 

 interesting and well-known facts. Do they, however, justify the 

 application of the term of " migrant " ? If they do almost the whole 

 of English bird life would come into that category. We might per- 

 haps conveniently speak of local migrants and distant migrants, 

 meaning by the latter those which periodically and as a whole race 

 leave our shores. Under this latter head none of the British Corvidce 

 come. Nor do they, so far as we are aware, ever entirely desert a 

 locality, even for a short time. They are migratory in no stronger 

 sense than the whole English population may be so described because 

 certain portions of it every summer habitually go to the seaside. 

 There is, however, no re? son to concern our readers, on the present 

 occasion, with the definition of the word " migrant," for the simple 

 reason that we did not use it. If Mr. Brown will again read the 

 article upon which he comments, he will see that what we wrote was, 

 "None of them are birds of passage? and about this it maybe pre- 

 sumed there can be no dispute. 



As regards the immunity of the beech from lightnings our cor- 



