Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/43

Rh little Finches seemed to apprehend no danger in establishing themselves thus near the habitation of so formidable an enemy.

"This Eagle is not found in Malta, but is said to inhabit North Africa, and is included by M. Savigny in his Birds of Egypt under the name of Aquila melanætos.

"M. Ménétries, the Russian Naturalist, in his catalogue of the zoological subjects obtained by him in the vicinity of Mount Caucasus, says, page 27, * I killed on the mountains of Talyche an adult example of this species, which had almost entirely lost the spots observed upon it when it is young.'

"Aquila nævia has been obtained by B. Hodgson, Esq. in Nepal, and by Mr. Blyth near Calcutta ; skins were in the collection made by Mr. Ewer in the north-western province of the Bengal territory, and also in that of Major Franklin.

"The young bird in its first year has the bill of a dark bluish horn colour, becoming lighter in colour towards the base, the cere yellow; irides hazel ; the whole head, neck, back, wings, and tail dark chocolate brown ; the tips of all the small and large wing- coverts marked with a crescent! c patch of pale wood-brown ; the tertials, upper tail-coverts and tail feathers the same ; under surface of the body dark brown, the feathers of the thighs and legs varied with paler brown lines ; the legs feathered down to the tarsal joint ; the toes yellow, reticulated for a portion of their length, but ending with four large and broad scales ; the claws nearly black.

"The young bird in its second year, as figured by Mr. Gould in his Birds of Europe, is more uniform in its colour than the bird here represented, but has some of the smaller wing-coverts, the greater coverts, and the tertials tipped with light brown ; the general colour dark reddish brown.

"An adult bird had the neck, back, wing-coverts, and tail reddish liver-brown ; the head, both above and below, rather lighter in colour, the feathers of the upper part of the head and neck lanceolate ; the primaries almost black ; under surface of the body very little lighter in colour than the back ; all the feathers white at the base ; legs, toes, and claws as in the young birds.

"The whole length twenty-seven and a half inches, the wing from the anterior joint twenty three and a half inches ; the fourth and fifth quill feathers nearly equal in length, but the fifth rather the longest in the wing. The wings when closed reach to the end of the tail.

"Willughby in his Ornithology has accurately described this species at page 63, under the name of the Morphno congener of Aldrovandus, and adds, that 'this bird took the name of Morphnos from the spots of the feathers, whence also it may in Latine not unfitly be called nævia.'

"The young bird is the Falco nævius and maculatus of Gmelin."

Occurrence of the great ash-coloured Shrike and Snow Bunting, near Burton-on-Trent. — Two remarkable instances of uncommon birds having been killed by a very common weapon, occurred during this year in our immediate neighbourhood, which you will perhaps think worthy of recording in 'The Zoologist.' In April last, a plasterer, in the employment of my friend, Charles Arkwright, Esq., heard an unusual noise proceeding from a bird, which he could not then see, in a hedge near Dunstall, six miles from hence, and upon throwing a stone into it, he had the good fortune to knock down a fine male specimen of the Larger Butcher Bird, or Shrike (Lanius Excubitor). Again at the end of October last, a labourer, who was assisting in making a survey for one of the numerous railways projected hereabouts, killed with a stone in the meadows iv