living in such close community. And yet, if a pair offer to build on a single tree, the nest is plundered and demolished at once. Some rooks roost on their nest-trees. The twigs which the rooks drop in building, supply the poor with brushwood to light their fires. Some unhappy pairs are not permitted to finish any nests till the rest have completed their building. As soon as they get a few sticks together, a party comes and demolishes the whole. As soon as rooks have finished their nests, and before they lay, the cocks begin to feed the hens, who receive their bounty with a fondling, tremulous voice, and fluttering wings, and all the little blandishments that are expressed by the young, while in a helpless state. This gallant deportment of the male is continued through the whole season of incubation. These birds do not copulate on trees, nor in their nests, but on the ground in the open fields.*

THRUSHES.-Thrushes, during long droughts, are of great service in hunting out shell snails, which they pull in pieces for their young, and are thereby very serviceable in gardens. † Missel thrushes do not destroy the fruit in gardens like the other species of turdi, but feed on the berries of misseltoe,

* After the first brood of rooks are sufficiently fledged, they all leave their nest-trees in the day time, and resort to some distant place in search of food, but return regularly every evening, in vast flights, to their nest-trees, where, after flying round several times, with much noise and clamour, till they are all assembled together, they take up their abode for the night.-MARKWICK.

We are aware that thrushes feed on snail shells, but think it more likely that they will find them in moist than in dry weather, at which time they generally conceal themselves in holes.

In the neighbourhood of Pitlessie, in Fife, a pair of thrushes built their nest in a cart-shed, while four wheelwrights were engaged in it as a work-shop. It was placed between one of the hulls of the harrow and the adjoining tooth. The men were busily employed at the noiseful work of joining wood all the day, yet these birds flew in and out at the door of the shed, without fear or dread, and finished their nest with mortar. On the second day, the hen laid an egg, on which she sat, and was occasionally relieved by the cock. In thirteen days the birds came out of the shells, which the old ones always carried off. They fed their young with shell-snails, such as those of the helex nemoralis, H. arbustorum, and H. aspersa, as also butterflies and moths. The nest was robbed one Sunday, in the absence of the millwrights.

Mr E. H. Greenhow, of North Shields, mentions a similar occurrence which came under his own observation, at Whitby. This nest was also built in a shed, at a public place. -ED.

and, in the spring, on ivy berries, which then begin to ripen. In the summer, when their young become fledged, they leave neighbourhoods, and retire to sheep-walks and wild commons.

The magpies, when they have young, destroy the broods of missel thrushes, though the dams are fierce birds, and fight boldly in defence of their nests. It is probably to avoid such insults, that this species of thrush, though wild at other times, delights to build near houses, and in frequented walks and gardens.*

POULTRY. Many creatures are endowed with a ready discernment to see what will turn to their own advantage and emolument; and often discover more sagacity than could be expected. Thus, my neighbour's poultry watch for wagons loaded with wheat, and, running after them, pick up a number of grains which are shaken from the sheaves by the agitation of the carriages. Thus, when my brother used to take down his gun to shoot sparrows, his cats would run out before him, to be ready to catch up the birds as they fell.

The earnest and early propensity of the galline to roost on high, is very observable; and discovers a strong dread impressed on their spirits respecting vermin that may annoy them on the ground during the hours of darkness. Hence poultry, if left to themselves and not housed, will perch the winter through on yew trees and fir trees; and turkeys and guinea fowls, heavy as they are, get up into apple trees: pheasants also, in woods, sleep on trees to avoid foxes; while pea-fowls climb to the tops of the highest trees round their owner's house for security, let the weather be ever so cold or blowing. Partridges, it is true, roost on the ground, not having the faculty of perching; but then the same fear prevails in their minds; for, through apprehensions from polecats and stoats, they never trust themselves to coverts, but nestle

Of the truth of this I have been an eye-witness, having seen the common thrush feeding on the shell snail.

In the very early part of this spring, (1797,) a bird of this species used to sit every morning on the top of some high elms close by my windows, and delight me with its charming song, attracted thither, probably, by some ripe ivy berries that grew near the place.

I have remarked something like the latter fact; for I remember, many years ago, seeing a pair of these birds fly up repeatedly, and attack some larger bird, which I suppose disturbed their nest in my orchard, uttering, at the same time, violent shrieks. Since writing the above, I have seen, more than once, a pair of these birds attack some magpies that had disturbed their nest, with great violence, and loud shrieks.-MARKWICK.

T

together in the midst of large fields, far removed from hedges and coppices, which they love to haunt in the day, and where, at that season, they can skulk more secure from the ravages of rapacious birds.

As to ducks and geese, their awkward, splay, web feet forbid them to settle on trees; they therefore, in the hours of darkness and danger, betake themselves to their own element, the water, where, amidst large lakes and pools, like ships riding at anchor, they float the whole night long in peace and security. *

* Guinea fowls not only roost on high, but in hard weather resort, even in the day time, to the very tops of the highest trees.

Last winter, when the ground was covered with snow, I discovered all my guinea fowls, in the middle of the day, sitting on the highest boughs of some very tall elms, chattering and making a great clamour: I ordered them to be driven down, lest they should be frozen to death in so elevated a situation; but this was not effected without much difficulty, they being very unwilling to quit their lofty abode, notwithstanding one of them had its feet so much frozen, that we were obliged to kill it. I know not how to account for this, unless it was occasioned by their aversion to the snow on the ground, they being birds that come originally from a hot climate.

Notwithstanding the awkward, splay, web feet, as Mr White calls them, of the duck genus, some of the foreign species have the power of settling on the boughs of trees, apparently with great ease; an instance of which I have seen in the Earl of Ashburnham's menagerie, where the summer duck (anus sponsa) flew up and settled on the branch of an oak tree, in my presence; but whether any of them roost on trees in the night, we are not informed by any author that I am acquainted with. I suppose not; but that, like the rest of the genus, they sleep on the water, where the birds of this genus are not always perfectly secure, as will appear from the following circumstance, which happened in this neighbourhood a few years since, as I was credibly informed: A female fox was found in the morning, drowned in the same pond in which were several geese, and it was supposed, that, in the night, the fox swam into the pond to devour the geese, but was attacked by the gander, which, being most powerful in its own element, buffeted the fox with its wings about the head, till it was drowned.-MARKWICK.

In Aberdeenshire, in 1821, thirty geese deserted the pond where they were bred, and were never more heard of. A gentleman saw them in their flight eastward towards the sea, the wind blowing a gale from the north-west.

A gentleman near Huddersfield had a flock of geese, which were fed on high ground not visible from his house: they were brought home at night; and very frequently, on seeing the house from the top of the hill, they would take wing, and fly homewards, making a circuit of about a mile. On one occasion, they were nearly alighting at a pond of water at the next farm-house, similar to one near their home; they soon, however, discovered their mistake, and raised themselves in the