Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/268

240 The effect produced by the outburst of the latter was overpowering. In general we see and hear the lark ascend the sky, or listen to his notes as they gradually wax louder and louder while we near the place where he is singing, but in the present instance it was entirely different. This moment all was silent, as if no living creature breathed save myself, the falcon and his tormentors; the next, the whole heavens resounded with the voices of many happy beings.

Curious Note of a Bird.—An individual passing through Drumshoreland, at any time of the year—except during frost and snow—is almost certain of hearing a peculiar note, somewhat resembling the sound produced by an angler unwinding his line. I do not refer to the continuous trill of the grasshopper lark: the note in question is by no means a steady, laboured one, like that warbler's. Nor is it emitted while the bird is stationary or concealed; but while it takes an undulating flight, as in the act of alighting on the top of a tall bush or tree. Surely it must proceed from a linnet, but of this I cannot be certain; neither know I to which species of this family it must be attributed. It would give me great pleasure to find the note adverted to by any one who has observed it.

The Wheatear.—In this wooded part of the Lothians the wheatear (Saxicola Œnanthe) is a rare visitant: indeed I have only seen it once within ten miles of us. In the early part of the summer of 1841 a nest of this bird was found here, in a situation somewhat singular, namely, in the very heart of a village. It was pointed out to me by Mr. Archibald Walker, Colinton, and was placed in a hole in a dilapidated wall of an old ruin, once the parish church of East Calder. The nest was bulky, but extremely shallow. In it lay seven eggs: in colour, for a time, I could scarcely distinguish them from those of the hedge-warbler; but in form they were more pointed, and a little longer than any of the accentor's I have yet seen. On a careful comparison, I found that the egg of the wheatear had about a shade of green more than that of the hedge-chanter. By this characteristic, and by the elongated shape of the former, the eggs of these two birds may be easily distinguished.

The Nightingale.—In almost every work on British Ornithology, it is asserted that the nightingale is never heard north of the Tweed. Individual instances of its occurrence in Scotland, however, are authenticated. Allow me to mention to your readers a fact which a few