Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/401

Rh ous stores. Snow-storms may sweep every little bird from our hedgerows, yet how very rarely does this pleasant bird join the congregated thousands in the stack-yard. His call-notes and lively manners give animation to our fields at all seasons, and the bird is one of my first favourites. Though fond of turnip-leaves and their bulbs, and young clover and grain, yet he is not prone to settle upon the sheaves, but is content to glean amongst the stubble. It seems to be very fond of pease and beans, and subsists largely upon insects and their larvae; indeed its young cannot exist upon any other food, at least when they are reared under a barn-door fowl. Nor do its good services end here, for at all seasons it feeds largely upon the seeds of Polygona, and many other injurious weeds which I am unable to name.

The Quail is by no means common in this district; only one specimen has come under my dissecting-knife, and the contents of its stomach entitled it to be ranked among our useful birds. It was shot during the month of May. I have seen specimens that were shot in Clydesdale so late as the month of September; and its call-notes are occasionally heard in our fields about the same time. Being a migratory bird, and only occurring in sparing numbers, it cannot do much damage to our corn -crops; whilst the benefits which, like many other birds, it confers upon us, are legion.

The Black Cock and Red Grouse occasionally frequent fields ot oats in the neighbourhood of their haunts, on the lower slopes of the Lammermoors.

The Water-hen. The timid gallinule is fond of searching stubbles in the neighbourhood of its haunts, upon the gleanings of which it fattens amazingly. The stack-yard possesses many attractions for it, but I am not aware that it feeds upon growing corn. Some years ago a lonely individual annually left the society of its fellows, took up its abode on the banks of our mill-pond, and rambled about the garden and stack-yard, till it was unfortunately killed by a man who was ignorant of the estimation in which it was held by every one about the place.

The Wild Goose. Small parties of some species of goose, probably the short-billed grey goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) or the bean goose (A. segetum), often alight in our fields of winter wheat and young clover, and do them much damage by grazing on the tender blades. In