Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/390

362 however going very far from the vicinity of the homestead. One day towards the end of September, I happened to be walking with a friend, who was in search of game. Our setter, after snuffing for some time about the roots of a hedge dividing a barleystubble from a pasture field, and in the neighbourhood of the haunts of the hen and her chicken, came to a staud-still. To our surprise the object of his point turned out to be the aforesaid hen and her young ones. The mother made off, running swiftly down the hedge, but the chicken crouched like partridges in the herbage at the hedgeroot, and one of them actually took to its wings, when hard pressed by the dogs, and flew into an adjoining plantation. Several attempts were made to catch them, but in vain, as they generally shunned the sight of a human being, either running off as fast as possible, or concealing themselves in some hedge or other lurking-place: sometimes they even resorted to their wings in order to escape. As we found it impossible to domesticate them I was compelled to shoot them, which I accomplished the other day with the assistance of my setter, who pointed, and with some difficulty put them up for me from a hedge in which they were skulking. The old hen and one of the chicken took to their wings; the other refused to rise and was caught by the dog.—Id.; October 16, 1843.

Note on the Bills of Birds. Mr. Jesse in his 'Gleanings,' in mentioning the adaptation of the bill of birds to their method of procuring food, appears to me to have overlooked a distinction between the woodcock and the duck tribes. The former class, as he remarks, "probe" in the soft ground, (once in a severe frost I shot a snipe at a spring with a very small worm in its beak); and the circumstance of its bill becoming rough at the extremity when dry after death, favours the idea of that part possessing sensation. The duck however has a hard exterior to its bill, and feeds, not by "probing," but by champing (as it were) the wet mud between its mandibles, as if with a view of separating the edible from the inedible matter.—Arthur Hussey; Rottingdean, Sussex, August, 1843.

Anecdote of a Woodcock. This summer (1838) a poor woman discovered four or five young woodcocks at a spring in Fence wood, where I have several times known them picked up. When the woman went to this spring for water, the old parent birds would fly at her legs with great fury, the same as partridges will do when they have young ones.—''Wm. Hewett.''

Note on the common Snipe. Mr. Brown mentions snipes having been seen during the summer months, (Zool. 249). Now they are in the habit of breeding on Dartmoor every year, where the young ones are sometimes killed before they have got the powers of flight properly developed, in a most unsportsmanlike manner: and I believe they also breed in many other parts of the kingdom which are suitable for them.—R.C.R. Jordan; Lympstone, Devon, September 18, 1843.

Note on the Golden Plover. The golden plover appears annually upon our open downs, arriving about the middle of November and remaining till the following spring, when it departs for those northerly regions where it is accustomed to breed. They always fly in large flocks, often as many as two hundred in number, called in sporting phraseology "a wing." I have occasionally seen them on our hills as late as March or April, at which time they are always in pairs, and are more easily to be approached. The flesh of the plover is of a peculiar but delicious flavour, affording a very choice dish when cooked (as I invariably have them) with the entrails in, and a toast under the birds. Although they are exceedingly shy and watchful in their habits, many are shot every winter during their sojourn on our hills, but it requires some little manocu-