RETROSPECTIVE REMARKS. 



171 



the appearance is, at times, extremely beautiful. The fact, however, I 

 find, is familiar to most entomologists, though perhaps it may be novel to 

 many who, like myself, have hitherto conducted their entomological 

 researches chiefly in the day time. That it should be observable in 

 Plusia gamma and its congeners is, I think, rather singular, as these 

 insects fly very much by day, and in the brightest sunshine. 



Your correspondent T. C. (page 70), has favoured you with some 

 remarks on the supposed torpidity of swallows. I was so fortunate last 

 November as to succeed in tracing one of these torpidity reports to its 

 foundation. First I heard that several swallows had been found by the 

 workmen, when repairing some part of Streatham Church, Surrey ; of 

 course I was all animation, and inquired of my informant, " who told 

 him so?" He referred me to another man, who said, " Some swallows 

 had certainly been found there," and gave me his authority for so 

 saying. I inquired again, and again, and again, and at last I discovered 

 the actual truth — that two dead swifts, in a skeleton state, had been 

 found in a hole in the steeple ! So much for the torpidity of swallows, 

 and for an account of several swallows being found in the steeple of 

 Streatham Church. I am not aware of any author who has mentioned 

 the fact, that the common swallow (H.rustica) sometimes builds in the 

 hole of a tree : a season or two ago, as I was walking by a row of lofty 

 elms at Sydenham, Surrey, I observed a boy descending one of them 

 with a bird's nest, which, to my surprise, contained three young swal- 

 lows, that he had just taken from a hole in the tree. This, no doubt, 

 is the original and natural situation for a swallow to construct its nest 

 in ; although in a country like England, where more convenient situa- 

 tions abound, it may but very rarely be known to select a hollow tree 

 for this purpose. 



I have a few observations to offer on T. C.'s " Notes on Birds." The 

 habit of the goldfinch, of placing its two feet upon its food (an almond 

 or piece of apple, for instance), and pecking it while held firm in that 

 situation, in the manner (as T. C. justly observes) of a genuine Varus, 

 is, I believe, among the Fringillidce , peculiar to the crossbills (Loxia), 

 and to the genus Carduelis. I have noticed it in the American gold- 

 finch, and in the common siskin of this country ( C. spinus) ; but none 

 of the linnets do so, not even the common redpole, which in many 

 respects so closely resembles the siskin. If a piece of almond be given 

 to the redpole, it will take it up in its bill, nibble off a small portion, 

 and lay the remainder gently on the perch beside it, but it has not the 

 least notion of holding it between its feet. 



