Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/178

152 the upper part of the Forest of Ardenne; and another on the wooded slope of the valley of the Molignée about Montaigle.

.—Its haunts are similar to those in this country; common.

.—A pair on high, open ground, near Sanzinne (about 800 feet), perched several times in young walnut trees and an apple tree in an orchard. I saw a female about a marble quarry close to the Meuse below Dinant.

.—Numerous in the meadows along the Meuse, some way above Dinant.

.—Quite common along the Meuse above Dinant; perhaps drawn away from the bushy hillsides and cliffs by the railway and telegraph wires. Also seen in a bushed gorge leading up from Bouvigne.

.—Common, and generally distributed in suitable localities. It is quite a house-bird, frequenting even considerable towns; and during this visit to Belgium I only twice saw it away from buildings. In one case an old male sat on a projecting rock on the cliff face a long way from any houses; in the other, a male was perched on a dead branch of a low bush in the middle of the refuse bank at a marble quarry. In Givet three were singing; one of them from the steeply-pitched roof of the church in the middle of the town. At Hastière one sang from the roof of the old inn; and another from the new brewery chimney. At Hermeton-sur-Meuse, a farm—with its odoriferous cowhouses and yard deep in manure, which it loves so well—had its pair, for each pair seems to have its allotted location, and does not, in the country at least, often admit of very near neighbours. When dwelling in a town amid a waste of steep roofs of all sizes and pitched at all angles, they are rather less exclusive. Stately château, vile modern villa, and humble white-walled cottage are alike favoured by this most domestic bird. It dearly loves one of those typical Ardenne villages like Houyet; or long, straight, one-streeted Sommière, where the cowhouse can hardly be distinguished from the owner's green-shuttered dwelling, and the doors of each are alike and side by side, while a rude ladder conducts the hens to a hole in the wall; almost every house is provided with a midden-place in lieu of a front garden, the manure neatly supported by a low wall or a wattle fence. All this results