6241 



Birds. 



feathers on the throat and hreast are hecorning grayish hlack, with slight purplish re- 

 flections ; the feathers on the back are likewise edged, more or less broadly, with cir- 

 cular bands of dark purple, shining* with a metallic lustre; the tail feathers are slightly 

 curved outwards, after the manner of the male birds. 



No. 4. A very light buff-coloured variety of the gray hen, bearing all the usual 

 markings in its plumage, but fainter in tint than is usually the case. 



No. 5. A specimen of the Tetrao medius, or Urogallus hybridus of authors. This 

 cross between the capercally and black grouse so exactly corresponds with the descrip- 

 tion of a specimen exhibited by Mr. Gould at the Zoological Society in the spring of 

 1831, that an extract from the ' Proceedings' of the Society at that date may sufiice for 

 the present instance : — *' The beak is black, the shining feathers on the front of the 

 neck are rich Orleans plum-colour, and of the eighteen feathers of the tail the outer 

 ones are the longest. In the cock-of-the- woods the beak is white, the feathers on the 

 front of the breast are a dark glossy-green, and the centre feathers of the tail the 

 longest." 



According to Mr. Yarrell, "The size and colour of these hybrids greatly depend upon 

 whether they have been produced between the capercally cock and gray hen or vice 

 versa.^^ Females of these hybrids appear much more rare than males. ^ — //. Stevenson; 

 Norwich, 



Occurrence of the Pigmy Curlew at Weymouth. — On the 28th of this month I 

 bought an adult pigmy curlew, fm* which I gave twopence ; it was shot with a number 

 of purres, all young, and v^'as offered me tied up in a bunch with them. — William 

 Thompson; Weymouth, August 29, 1858. 



Snipes Neighing or Humming. — On the origin of the neighing sound which accom- 

 panies the snipe's play, — that is, its flight during pairing time, — opinions are various. 

 Bechstein thought it was produced by means of the beak; Naumann and others that 

 it originated in powerful strokes of the wing: but since Pralle, in Hanover, observed 

 that it uttered its well-known song or cry, which he expresses by the words " gick jack, 

 gick jack,'' at the same time with the neighing sound, it seemed to be certain that the 

 latter was not produced through the throat. In the meantime I have remarked with 

 surprise that the humming sound could never be observed while the bird was flyinij 

 upwards, at which time the tail is closed, but only when it was descending in a 

 slanting direction, with the tail strongly spread out. The peculiar form of the tail- 

 feathers in some foreign species nearly allied to the common snipe, for instance, in 

 Scolopax javensis, encouraged the notion that the tail, if not the only cause, is in a 

 considerable degree concerned in the production of the sound. On a closer examination 

 of the tail-feathers of our common species, I found the first outer feather especially very 

 peculiarly constructed; the shaft uncommonly stiff and sabre-shaped ; the rays of the 

 web strongly bound together and very long, — the longest reaching very nearly three- 

 fourths of the whole length of the web, their rays lying along or spanning from end to 

 end of the curve of the shaft, like the strings of a musical instrument. If we blow from 

 the outer side upon the broad web it immediately vibrates, and a sound is heard, which, 

 although not so loud, resembles very exactly the well-known neighing. In order to 

 convince myself fully that it was the first feather that produced the peculiar sound, it 

 was only necessary for me carefully to pluck out such a feather, to fasten its shaft with 

 fine thread to a piece of steel wire a tenth of an inch in diameter and a foot long, and 

 then to fix this at the end of a four-foot stick. If now I drew the feather, with its 

 outer side forwards, sharply through the air, at the same time making some short 



