Hood, in Coldstream, for the purpose of being stuffed. (Newcastle Courant, Feb. 11. 1832.) The Dates of Appearance, Breeding, and Disappearance of some Birds and Insects, in the Parish of Tynemouth, during the Year 1831. [The systematic names affixed by our correspondent are those of Linnæus.] Feb. 17. Skylark (Alaúda arvénsis) began to sing. 21. Thrush (Túrdus mùsicus) began to sing; Blackbird (Túrdus Mérula) began to sing. April 12. Thrush (Túrdus musicus) has callow young. 18. House swallow (Hirundo rústica) arrived. 25. Fauvette (Sylvia hortensis) arrived. 28. Sedge warbler (Sylvia salicària) arrived; Whitethroat (Sýĺvia cinèrea) arrived. May 2. Corncrake (Ortygomètra Créx) arrived; Green linnet (Lóxia Chloris) has eggs. 5. Early cabbage butterfly (Póntia Chariclèa) came out. 6. Spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa Grisola) arrived; Pied flycatcher (Muscicapa Atricapilla) arrived. 16. Cuckoo (Caculus canorus) arrived ; Green linnet (Lóxia Chlòris) has callow young; Titlark (Alaúda praténsis) has eggs; Skylark (Alaúda arvensis) has callow young. 17. Common tern (Stérna cantìaca) arrived. June 12. Brown butterfly (Papilio Jurtina) appeared ; Blue Argus butterfly (Papilio A'rgus) appeared. Aug. 2. Small tortoiseshell butterfly (Vanessa urticae) appeared. 15. Painted lady butterfly (Cynthia cardui) appeared. 18. Copper butterfly (Lycæ'na Phlæ`as) appeared. Sept. 10. Small summer birds (Muscicapæ, Sylviæ, &c.) preparing to depart. 12. House swallows (Hirúndo rústica) congregating previously to departure. 13. Black-throated diver (Colymbus arcticus) arrives. 15. Redbreast (Sylvia Rubécula) approaches the town; Admirable butterfly (Vanéssa Atalanta) appeared. 26. Sea swallows (Stérna cantìaca &c.) departing. Oct. 6. Black grouse (Tétrao Tetrix) arrived. 20. Speckled diver (Colýmbus stellatus) arrived. 22. Peewits (Tringa Vanéllus) congregating. 23. Redwing (Turdus iliacus) arrived. 27. Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) arrived; Royston crow (Córvus Córnix) arrived. The above dates are as accurate as it is possible for them to be; since many of our birds of passage are so fatigued, on their first coming, as to render it next to impossible to ascertain the exact day on which they arrive.-E. H. Greenhow. North Shields, Nov. 9. 1831. -- Birds of Passage visiting the Parish of Tynemouth, in Northumberland. Sir, I send you an account of the birds of passage which visit the parish of Tynemouth, Northumberland, annually, in the summer season, for the purpose of incubation. I am, Sir, yours, &c. - E. H. Greenhow. North Shields, Sept. 22. 1831. Hirundo rústica, House swallow. úrbica, Martin. ripària, Sand martin. Apus, Swift. Cuculus canorus, Cuckoo. Yúnx Torquilla, Wryneck. Sylvia Atricapilla, Blackcap. arundinacea, Lesser Fauvette. Sylvia salicària, Sedge warbler. Motacilla flàva, Yellow wagtail. Muscicapa luctuosa, Pied flycatcher. Stérna cantiaca [S. Boýsü Latham] minùta, Lesser tern. Hirúndo, Common tern. Dougall, Roseate tern. Charadrius Hiatícula, Ring dottrel. To this list I might have added the dottrel (Charadrius Morinéllus), and the redstart (Sýlvia Phoenicurus); but not having met with them myself, I have thought it better to omit them. The House Swallow (Hirundo rústica) is common here, as it appears to be every where. Many of the swallows in this neighbourhood congregate on the sea-banks, in search of the numerous insects with which they abound. I occasionally, during the unusually hot weather with which we have been visited this summer [1831], walked there early in the morning, that I might the more readily examine the habits of some of our summer birds of passage which more particularly frequented that place; and, among the rest, was highly gratified at seeing from fifty to a hundred swallows skimming about in all directions; and, what is truly extraordinary, in all their numerous evolutions, they never came in contact with each other; but, crossing and recrossing each other's path, they coasted along the banks, beach, and little inlets of the sea, for upwards of a mile: the beauty of which scene I cannot describe better than by the following quotation from an elegant author (Sir Humphry Davy, in his Salmonia, p. 79.): "I delight in this living landscape: the swallow is one of my favourite birds, and a rival of the nightingale; for he glads my sense of seeing, as much as the other does my sense of hearing he is the joyous prophet of the year, the harbinger of the best season; he lives a life of enjoyment, amongst the loveliest forms of nature; winter is unknown to him, and he leaves the green meadows of England, in autumn, for the myrtle and orange groves of Italy, and for the palms of Africa; he has always objects of pursuit, and his success is secure: even the beings selected for his prey are poetical, beautiful, and transient." The Martin (Hirúndo úrbica). Although this bird is extensively diffused over Britain, yet I am acquainted with only one of its haunts in this neighbourhood; which being three miles distant, I have fewer opportunities of examining its habits than I would wish. Sand Martin (Hirundo ripària). The localities which the sand martin prefers are not commonly met with; and although it does occasionally settle near large towns, yet it seems to be but a transient visiter, preferring solitary banks bordering upon a lake or river, where it can bring up its young undisturbed by the presence of man. A few years ago, a colony of these birds established themselves on the south side of Tynemouth banks, and seemed to increase rapidly, their nests being wholly out of reach; but, unfortunately, some idle fishermen, wishing to prove their skill upon the poor martins, shot many of them: and from that time they have never returned, but have probably emigrated to some neighbouring station, of which there are two within a few miles. I might, perhaps, with propriety, in this place, express my indignation at the merciless and too general destruction of the poor swallows; but the celebrated author of the Journal of a Naturalist has already (p. 221. of that work) done it in so feeling a manner as to leave nothing fresh for me to say. [See an eloquent and amiable essay "On the wanton Destruction of Swallows," in our Vol. III. p. 35., by Philochelidon.] The Wryneck (Yúnx Torquilla) (fig. 102.) is comparatively rare here. I have seldom seen it; and never myself found its nest, although I have heard that the latter is occasionally met with. It arrives about the latter end of April. [It is but just to remark, that, beautiful as is the accompanying woodcut, it, from some nameless fault or other, does not portray the wryneck with characteristic faithfulness. I incline to say the neck and tail are too long, and these proportions represent the bird larger than it really is. The same faults, I think, appertain to the cut in Bewick's British Birds, from which, if I recollect rightly, the present cut has been copied. The beautiful markings are well shown; but Montagu says, "the pen or the pencil can only give a very inadequate idea of the elegant markings of this bird. Its name of wryneck seems to have been given it from the singular manner of turning its head over its shoulders alternately, at which time the black list on the back of the neck gives it a twisted appearance: it also erects all the feathers on the crown of the head in a terrific manner." Mention is made of the wryneck in this Magazine, Vol. IV. p. 450.-J. D.] Whinchat (Sylvia Rubètra). I mention this among our birds of passage, because it certainly emigrates from this neighbourhood; but is, I believe, found through the winter in Kent and some of the southern counties. The Shrike (Lanius excùbitor) is an uncommon bird. A pair of them came this spring to a deserted and solitary plantation bordering on the town; but although I saw them daily at a little distance, yet I could not approach near enough to observe their habits, or trace them to their nest. There was a great quantity of the elytra of beetles scattered on the ground near the place which they seemed chiefly to haunt; from which I imagine these insects to have formed the principal part of their food. On going to the plantation which they frequented, on the 13th of September, I found they were gone, nor have I been able to see them since; and therefore conclude they must have already taken their departure for more genial climes. The Pied Flycatcher (Muscicapa luctuòsa). This bird is very uncommon in Britain. A pair of them visited us this spring, on the 6th of May, and remained all the summer, until the 19th of August, when they disappeared from their breeding place; but had probably only migrated to the seabeach, which abounds in insects at that season. This morning (Sept. 7.), while sauntering along the sea-banks, I perceived either my old friends, or some others, in company with the spotted flycatchers and other soft-billed summer birds, evidently congregating previously to the general autumnal migration.-E. H. Greenhow. North Shields, Sept. 22. 1831. Several rare birds have been shot here lately, as follows: Lárus parasiticus, Arctic gull. Coracias garrula, Roller. Of the first three, only one individual of each was shot: of the pygmy curlew, six were seen, all sitting together on a rock by the seaside; four of them were shot. - E. H. G. ART. II. Natural History in Scotland. VARIOUS COUNTIES. DUMFRIESSHIRE. An Adder (Cóluber Berus) with two distinct Heads, which lived three days, and formed one of six young ones taken from the body of an old adder, found in a ditch at Drumlanrig, near Dumfries, is now in the museum of Master Thomas Grierson, at his father's residence, Baitford, near Thornhill, Dumfriesshire. W. G. Baitford, Oct. 8. 1831. FIFE. A Finner Whale taken at Largo. On the morning of May 15. 1832, a finner whale, 14 ft. in length, was found entangled in the stake-nets opposite the Hallhill estate, near this place. The huge animal was dragged ashore, and excited in no small degree the curiosity of the natives. (Edinburgh Advertiser, May 22. 1832.) ELGIN.-The Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola L.) resides through the Year, and breeds in Scotland.—The following communication appeared in the Elgin Courier, to the editor of which journal it was addressed:-" Sir, I am surprised to find that so little information exists as to the fact of the woodcock not only remaining in this part of the world, but of actually breeding every season in the forest and woodlands which surround the Earl of Moray's magnificent seat of Darnaway Castle. That such is the fact is well known, not only to the gamekeepers and woodmen, but to the forester, Mr. Cutler, who is well qualified to give to the world a very interesting account of the natural history of this northern emigrant. Ä friend of my own lately mentioned to me, that, during the barking season, the woodmen frequently found woodcocks' nests. He also informed me, that, in the month of April last, he accompanied the principal gamekeeper into the woods; that during their ramble they flushed a woodcock, which flew as if wounded; that, on his remarking this, the gamekeeper laughed, and told him it was a hen bird flying off with a young chick in her talons; and, to convince my friend of a brood being near at hand, the gamekeeper looked cautiously among the underwood, where the nest was discovered, containing two young woodcocks, which, on being disturbed, ran off, uttering a piping note. The keeper, further, gave my friend the following most interesting account of this migratory bird, which he had repeatedly witnessed. He stated, that it always builds its nest in a dry situation; that it generally has three chicks; that immediately after they are hatched, and until the chicks can fly, the cock and hen bird regularly, every morning and evening, clutch the chicks in their talons, and fly with them to the nearest springs, where they continue until the chicks have fed; when the old birds re-convey them in the same manner to their nest. He also stated, that, when the winter set in, the woodcock almost entirely deserted the Darnaway Forest; and concluded that they flew southward. I trust that some one will acquire from Mr. Macbean, the keeper at Darnaway Castle, the necessary information, to enable such person to give to the public a more perfect account of the natural history of the woodcock, than it at present possesses." |