6094 



Birds. 



tree, but they will occasionally upon low, broad railings. I may also say that the pure 

 black and white plumage is their summer livery, in which state they are very rarely 

 seen in Britain. In winter the black feathers of the back are broadly edged with fer- 

 ruginous, and the head, neck and all the under parts are strongly tinged with 

 the same colour, becoming of a deep chestnut on the crown of the head and back of 

 the neck ; in the breeding plumage these parts are pure white. — Henri/ Douhleday ; 

 Epping, April 16, 1858. 



[There is certainly a mistake in Mr. Matthews's statement, which it is important 

 to correct. Was the pied flycatcher the bird that he saw. — E, NI\ 



The Ring Ouzel near Banff. — The ring ouzel (Tardus torquatus) appears to be 

 getting much more numerous in this neighbourhood than it used to be. I have, this 

 year, met with many pairs in places where I had never seen it before, and I have 

 in one instance been fortunate enough to find a nest containing four eggs. — Thomas 

 Edward; Banff, May 11, 1858. 



Retention of Scent hy the Partridge and other Game. — Reference having been 

 made in the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 6014) to an opinion entertained by some persons, that 

 game birds (should not the hypothesis be extended to all game animals, whose only 

 defence is flight ?) possess the power of retaining their scent, I will subjoin two anec- 

 dotes bearing upon the perplexing phenomenon of scent. Holding, myself, no 

 theory upon the subject, I draw no conclusion, one way or the other, from what I have 

 to relate, which T mention merely as facts, for the authenticity of which I will vouch. 

 Though my own adventure occurred very long ago, it was in my native parish, and in 

 a part thereof with which I was intimately familiar, beside that peculiar circumstances 

 impressed the incident upon my memory, so that even now I could point out 

 the locality, though I have not visited the spot for much nearer thirty than twenty 

 years. With regard to the second story, which I know merely from the report 

 of another, I may state that my informant was an intelligent, well-conducted person, 

 whose veracity I have not the smallest ground for doubting. More than forty years 

 ago I shot a cock pheasant, which fell winged in an open field, and ran straight for 

 the opposite hedge, reaching and passing through it before overtaken by the dogs, 

 which followed instantly, hunted him a little distance down the hedge, and then lost 

 the scent, which they were unable to recover, when I joined them immediately after. 

 Being convinced that the dogs (both very good, and even the youngest of some expe- 

 rience) would not have failed to regain the trail of the bird, fresh as it was, had he 

 slipped away in any direction, after vainly trying all round for some time I returned 

 to the place where the pheasant had come through the hedge, for the purpose of care- 

 fully examining it in the course the dogs had shown him to have taken, although the 

 hedge, from having been closely browsed by sheep on both sides, was extremely thin, 

 without grass or weeds at the bottom to cover even a lark. Before going far I espied 

 the lip of my friend's long tail in a small hole, like a rat's, under an old stump of 

 the underwood composing the hedge, and where, had I trusted solely to the noses of 

 the dogs, the game might have remained in perfect concealment. In this occurrence 

 it is to be remarked that the mere feet of the bird left sufficient taint upon the bare 

 ground for dogs to pursue unerringly for a distance of (say) about fifteen yards, more 

 or less ; while no effluvium from the entire body of the pheasant passed out from its 

 hiding-place to indicate its whereabout, though its enemies were eagerly seeking after 

 it, with an interval of only a few inches between them. Moreover, and this deserves 

 to be especially noted, no scent appears to have been left round the entrance of the 



