Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/545

Rh man, greedy man; pick 'em, pick 'em!" The self-consciousness of the hearer is in many other respects often quaintly appealed to by Thrushes; but one of the most ludicrous of this kind is the quiet self-satisfied and oft-repeated remark I have heard from one of our Pigeons (I think it is the Stock-Dove), as I grubbed away for spiders under a tree, "Look at the fool, look at the fool!" The "Take two cows, Taffy" of the Ring-Dove is, of course, well known. What, however, I have now specially taken up my pen for, is to record by musical annotation a Blackbird's song, with which I was regaled in May, 1900, day after day, fur at least three weeks. I did not search closely, but I believe the hen bird was "sitting" close by; at any rate, the old cock sang his strain every day within a radius of twenty yards, as I frequently watched him, and my "den" being also close by with the window open, I became very familiar with his ditty. I may remark that, so far as I could make out, he had no other song at all. The notes were very soft, but yet full, fluty, and rich, and the intonation perfect. I never once detected it either out of time or out of tune. The strain would be repeated, generally, several times in fairly quick but not hurried succession; now and then it was more distinctly piano than at other times, and occasionally there was a little variation in the expression. When at last the song ceased I felt for some time as if one of my chief pleasures of the day was gone. Meantime, I wrote the strain on a scrap of music-paper, et voilà:—

— (Bloxworth Rectory, Dorset).

undertaken the Birds for the forthcoming 'Victorian History of Suffolk,' and being desirous that the list should be as accurate as possible, may I be allowed to say that I should be very grateful for records of the occurrence of Savi's Warbler, Fire-crested Wren, Cirl Bunting, Golden Eagle, and Roseate Tern? Also for records of the breeding in the county within the last twenty years of the Bearded Tit and Hobby; and at any date of the breeding of the Pied Flycatcher, Golden Oriole, Hoopoe, Hen-Harrier, Marsh-Harrier, Kite, Bittern, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit, Sandwich Tern, Gadwall, and Tufted Duck?— (Tostock Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk).