6144 



Birds. 



However, the conclusion I draw is that the heath-birds found in all these different 

 localiiies are the same partridge as the common, rather stunted in growth, like our 

 forest-bred ponies, and their flesh and their plumage, in Mr. Kidd's birds, altered by 

 their food, namely, heather and hurtle-berries, of which latter in all this county, there 

 are vast quantities ; and I once shot a hen-pheasant in the latter end of August, 

 having mistaken her, when flying from me in the sun, for a grey heu (as we were 

 black grouse shooting at the time), and her crop was one entire mass of these purple 

 berries. This proves nothing, but the fondness of game-birds for that particular food. 

 The extreme blueness of the legs, as mentioned in the letter I quote, if observable in 

 all these localities, added to the difference in size, which is acknowledged by all, 

 would certainly tend to prove a variety, as the colour of the legs would be less likely 

 to be influenced by the food ; and if I shoot any this year, I shall particularly remark 

 this, to compare them with others, but at present I hold the supposed " mountain 

 partridge'' of the 'Field,' to be a myth. — John W, G, Spicer ; Fowley^ near Lip - 

 hook, Hants, June 1 1 , 1858. 



Note on a Lapwings Egg ivith Two Yolks. — I observed this morning in a dish of 

 lapwings' eggs one nearly twice the usual size, and on opening it, I found that it con- 

 tained two perfect yolks; although this is not an uncommon phenomenon in the eggs 

 of domestic poultry, I never met with it before in the egg of a wild bird. Possibly, 

 the circumstance of lapwing's eggs being so frequently abstracted from the nest in 

 consequence of the demand for them at the table, may in some measure account for 

 the occurrence of such an irregularity in an egg of this species. — /. H. Gurney ; 

 Kensington, May 24, 1858. 



Domestic Ducks Nesting in a. Church Tower. — Some days ago two ducks were seen 

 on the weathercock of our church, which seemed strange, but the strangest part of the 

 story is to be told. On the morning: of the 1st instant the son of the clerk had an oc- 

 casion to go up among the bells, where, to his surprise, he found the ducks had a nest 

 with eggs in it, and this morning (June 3rd) I examined the nest ; in it there are 

 eight eggs. The elevation of the nest from the surface is some ninety feet. The 

 ducks are the property of T. M. Boorn, Esq., who is anxious to preserve the eggs so 

 that the young may be hatched where the eggs are at present. — Sussex Express, June 

 5, 1858. \_Commimicated hy the Rev, Arthur Hussey, Roltingdean'], 



Occurrence of the Short Sun-fish at Torquay. — The short sun-fish (Orthagoriscus 

 mola, Schneider) is a fish of sufficient rarity to make its capture worth noting, while 

 its form is so bizarre and its size so great as to make it a sort of wonderment among 

 sailors and fishermen, who invariably drag it about from house to house as a raree- 

 show when they secure one, in the hope of a few pence. J hrice in this manner has 

 the species been brought under my notice; at llfracorabe, in the summer of 1852 ; at 

 Tenby, in 1856; and to-day at Torquay. This last specimen is smaller than the 

 former ones I had seen ; as it is not more than about two feet in length, and a 

 foot and a half in height ; its colour, too, is a lighter tinge, — a silvery gray, becoming 

 white on the belly, and scarcely deepening to an iron-gray, even on the back. I looked 

 in vain for the curious disk-shaped parasitic leech, — Tristoma molae ; which is often 

 found on the species, and which, I remember, was infesting in some numbers the 



