THE MARCH COCK. 
647 
Magazine , has papers to that effect, and to make a beginning in the 
Horticultural Register , here is one, if you think what I am writing 
worth notice. 
Peel a dozen ripe tomatoes, and frv them in a little salad oil, with 
two or three green capsicums cut up, and sprinkled with a little salt. 
A sliced onion or two also may be added, if approved of, or butter 
used instead of oil. 
This is a Spanish dish, and it is presumed, will be found excellent 
by most people. 
A Constant Reader. 
June 29, 1832. 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
ARTICLE XVI. 
NOTICE OF A BIRD CALLED THE MARCH COCK, MIGRATION OF 
GOLD FINCHES. 
BY HTJO DE HESP'ANA. 
In reference to Professor Rennie’s communication inserted at pages 
559—60, of the Horticultural Register, where mention is made 
of M. Natterer having shot a species of bird, nearly allied to the 
Philomela atricapilla, at Algeziras near Gibraltar, brought strongly 
to my recollection, the circumstance of my having, when a youth, 
been on a shooting excursion with two or three friends about the 
same spot, and meeting with a bird which perched on a tree near 
where we were passing. I had a distinct but very transient view of 
it, for one of the party immediately fired at it, and though within 
short range of shot, unfortunately missed it. The bird appeared of 
the size of the common Bantam, with white plumage and arched fea¬ 
thers in its tail, and is known in that part of Spain by the name of 
the March Cock, by reason of it never having been seen at any other 
season of the year in lower Andalusia, than in that month. 
I have heard my father state, that being on a return-voyage from 
Oram, on the north coast of Barbary to the Straits, a March Cock 
alighted on one of the yards of the vessel, and was so exhausted as to 
permit its being taken, without any difficulty; the bird, notwith¬ 
standing its having rejected various kinds of food that was presented 
to it, for several days prior to its arrival at Gibraltar, continued alive 
