Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/388

360 single for so long a time? Is it from inability to do as other birds do in this respect also? Truly it has good ground of complaint against us! for we go nigh "to write it down an ass;" and one, moreover, of no common dulness. But since facts are more convincing than argument, would it not be well to test the truth of the above suppositions by having recourse to experiment? Three instances of this strange conduct of the grey wagtail's have been already recorded in 'The Zoologist;' it is not, then, by any means improbable, that future instances may fall under the notice of some one who reads these observations. In such case might not something of this kind be tried? On the insect hypothesis.—A small fly or two might be fixed by means of gum (takingcare to touch only their feet) to the window visited, and their places shifted from time to time. If the bird confined his (or her) attention to those parts of the window to which the flies were attached, and continued to do so notwithstanding their change of place, there would be good ground for thinking his appetite governed his motions. On the other hypothesis.—A pane of glass might easily be converted into a temporary mirror, by placing behind it some black substance: and each pane in turn might be thus treated. Then if the wagtail confined his inspection solely to the prepared pane, it would be obvious that he was attracted by the reflection of his own form. But, on the other hand, should he pay little or no attention to the insects or the looking-glass in preference to the other parts, or to one particular part of the window, it would seem that both the suppositions must be relinquished as untenable. When I commenced these notes I had no intention of proposing any new mode of explanation; but while writing, I have recollected an account I read some years since of a method of lark-catching practised in (I think) the South of France, which perhaps may afford a clew to the mystery of this habit of the wagtail's. A piece of wood, having fragments of looking-glass fixed to it, is made to rotate about an axis by means of a long string. When a flock of larks is seen, this instrument is set in motion; the birds, catching sight of it, appear to be as it were fascinated, and settle down on the ground near the object which has influenced them: they are then easily taken in the nets set for that purpose. Without attempting to account for the effect produced by this simple apparatus upon the faculties of the lark or enquiring in what manner it is produced, I would suggest that possibly the windows visited by the wagtails may have been accidentally adapted to produce a somewhat similar effect upon them. I am writing in a place at which I have no means of access to books, and therefore cannot give the references I otherwise would. I think I have seen a similar account in one of the series of Hone's 'Every-day Book.' Writing from memory I may have made mistakes, but I think I am, in the main, correct. In the second and more minute account, we find that the bird did not begin to fly against the glass until the blind had been drawn up; and this would seem to give additional likelihood to my suggestion. But I will not at present add more. The subject seems to me to carry much of interest with it, and to be worthy of close investigation; and I hope we shall yet hear that it has met with it. J.C. Atkinson; Hulton, Berwick-on-Tweed, September 9, 1843.

Anecdote of the Domestic Pigeon settling on trees. White says that the house-dove is very rarely seen to settle on trees, which is, I admit, generally true. A friend of mine, however, near here, has a pigeon-house close to some immense elms, which in fact overhang the building, and in the branches of which the pigeons are very often seen to settle on a sunny day. This I have myself witnessed, and have seen them pursuing one another over the larger limbs, and hopping from bough to bough.—W. Hewett.

Anecdote of a Peacock killed by a common Hen. The following is a verbatim