280 



CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



Summer birds of passage. — A few days ago, being five hundred 

 miles from the coast of Portugal, four hundred from that of Africa, 

 &c, we were agreeably surprised by the appearance of a few swallows 

 (Hirundo urbica, and rustica). This, however extraordinary, might 

 have been explained by an easterly gale, which might have cut off a 

 migrating band from the main to Madeira, only two hundred miles distant 

 from us ; but what was my surprise in observing several small warblers 

 hopping about the deck and riggings. These poor little strangers, 

 exhausted as they were, were soon caught and brought to me. The 

 following is a list of the species : — 1. Sylvia trochilus. 2. Sylvia 

 erithacus, Lath. {Tithys, Temm.). 3. Sylvia suecica, or rather a 

 similar species which I have already received from Egypt and Barbary. 

 4. A species new to Europe, and perhaps even a nondescript, having 

 the plumage of an anthus, and which I think belongs (as Sylvia cisti- 

 cola, and others,) to the hitherto African genus, Malurus. This, how- 

 ever, must rest undecided, my specimen having lost its tail, which had 

 been pulled off by the sailor who caught the bird. — Charles Lucien 

 Bonaparte *. 



On Board the Delaware, near Gibraltar, March 20, 1828. 



Furze branches for cage birds. — I have placed branches of 

 furze in my two large cages, and it is surprising to see how the birds 

 enjoy it. The twite and the siskin feed upon the seminal parts of the 

 flowers, and have stripped the branch that is in their cage of every 

 blossom bud. The twite remains upon the furze almost the whole day, 

 sings upon it, and at night roosts upon it. The warblers, also, are 

 extremely fond of threading the interstices, and concealing themselves 

 amongst it, as they do in their wild state. — Edward Blyth. 



Tooting. 



Torpidity of snails. — In February, 1832, I had some snails out 

 of the country to feed a blackbird with ; one of them escaped and tra- 

 velled to the ceiling, where I found him next morning ; a date was 



* From the Linn. Trans, xvi P. 754. 



