The weight of this species is about eleven ounces; length between thirteen and fourteen inches. The bill is light coloured; irides dusky. The feathers round the eyes yellowish; the circle round the face white; the upper parts of the body, coverts, and secondary quills, pale dull yellow, with two white and two grey spots placed alternately on each side the shafts; prime quills dull yellow on the outer webs, the inner white, marked on each side with four black spots; the whole under side white; the interior webs of the tail-feathers are white, the exterior marked with obscure dusky bars; legs covered with white down; the toes only with short hairs; middle claw serrated. This elegant bird mostly frequents the habitations of man; is rarely found in woods, but resorts chiefly to barns for the sake of mice, for which reason it is a welcome guest to the farmer. Like the rest of the genus, it chiefly lies concealed in the day, but will sometimes, when pressed by hunger, prey by daylight, especially in winter, or when it has young. It breeds in old decayed trees in the neighbourhood of farm-houses or villages, and oftentimes in barns; makes very little nest; lays three or four white eggs, not so round or so large as that of the tawny owl. Their food is chiefly mice, which they swallow whole, and, like other predacious birds, eject the bones and fur in large pellets, which are termed castings. Some bushels of this ejected matter are found in the hollows of old trees. This species is never known to hoot, but its notes are screaming and harsh; besides which it makes a snoring and hissing noise. *Sir W. Jardine asserts in a note to the late edition of White's Selborne, that the White Owl does hoot, that he has shot them in the act, and that at night, when not alarmed, hooting is their general cry. When alarmed it snaps its bill together with great force. It becomes exceedingly tame when taken young. We bred up one together with a sparrow hawk and a ring dove, who were confined together, and lived in great harmony, but the latter was the most quarrelsome, and was master of the triumvirate. After living together for six months, they were given their liberty, and the owl was the only one that returned. Cats are known to kill but never to eat the shrew, which has been supposed to possess some poisonous quality. We have, however, taken from the stomach of one of these birds no fewer than five shrews.* BASS COCK.-A name for the Plover. BASTARD PLOVER.-A name for the Lapwing. BEAM BIRD (Muscicapa grisola, LINNEUS.) Muscicapa grisola, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 328. 20.- Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 949.-Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 467.-Briss. 2. p. 357. 1. t. 35. f. 3.-Raii, Syn. p. 81. 7.Will. p. 153. 171.-Le Globe-mouche, proprement dit, Buff. Ois. v. 4. p. 517. t. 25.-Id. Pl. Enl. 565. f. 1.-Gobe-mouche, gris. Temm. Man. d'Orn. 1. p. 152. -Gecleckter Flugenfanger, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 3. p. 421.-Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 211.-Frisch, t. 22. f. 2. 6.-Spotted Flycatcher, Br. Zool. 1. p. 350. No. 134.-Lewin's Br. Birds, 3. t. 87.-Lath. Syn. 3. p. 323. 1. -Mont. Orn. Dict.-Bewick's Br. Birds, 1. p. 196.-1b. Supp. p. 30.-Selby, pl. 43. f. 1. p. 146. Provincial.-Rafter. Post Bird. Bee Bird. Cherry Chopper. Cherry Sucker. Chanchider. This species is about the size of a titlark; length not quite six inches. The bill is dusky, and broad at the base; inside of the mouth yellow; irides hazel. The whole upper parts of the bird are brown; the head obscurely spotted with dusky: breast and belly dull white; the shafts of the feathers on the breast dusky: sides under the wings tinged with dull orange; legs short and black. This bird comes to us late in the spring, and departs in September, *(the middle of October, Selby.)* It frequents orchards and groves, will often make its nest on the limb of some fruit tree nailed against the wall, or in a hole; sometimes in out-buildings, upon the end of a rafter or beam; and at other times against the body of a large tree upon the stump of a decayed branch. The nest is formed of bents, moss, and such like materials, interwoven with spiders' webs, and lined with feathers. It lays four or five eggs, not much unlike those of the redbreast, but rather less, and the rust-coloured spots more distinct, and not so much confined to the larger end. Its food seems to be entirely winged insects, which it takes on the wing, darting upon them from some leafless branch or post, to which it returns; whence it is called in Kent the post bird. We are told it is particularly fond of cherries. But Selby says he has not been able to verify this, and it may in such cases have been confounded with the fauvette.* Perhaps they may frequent the cherry and other fruit trees for the sake of flies, which are attracted by the fruit. As soon as the young birds leave the nest, they are led by the old ones to some neighbouring wood or grove where insects abound, and where they may be seen darting in every direction in pursuit of flies, and frequently returning to the same stand. Its note is a simple weak chirp, not frequently used till after the young are fled, so that the bird is not easily discovered, though it is by no means uncommon, and seems to be more generally diffused in England than the redstart, and many other of the summer migrants. It is rare in Scotland. We have observed it in several parts of Cornwall, where the last-mentioned bird is rarely, if ever, seen and it is more common than that bird in the west of Devonshire. Willughby says it is found in Yorkshire, and called the beam-bird, from its nesting under beams in out-buildings. He also calls it beccafigo, or fig-eater. Mr. Pennant has considered Willughby's beam-bird as the chiff-chaff (Sylvia hippolais); but his description, which is as follows, by no means answers to that bird.. "Less than the blackcap. The inside of the mouth is red; the head, neck, back, and wings, are of an olivaceous ash colour: the quill-feathers darker, edged with olive; the inner coverts of the wings yellow : breast white, tinged with yellow : the belly silvery white; the tail dusky; the legs bluish." Most certainly this description does not correspond with either the fauvette, or chiff-chaff. From the habit, we should be led to believe it to be the beam-bird, (Muscicapa grisola, LINNEUS,) which in some places is called by the name of rafter, from its resting on, or under, rafters in old buildings; whereas the fauvette and chiff-chaff invariably repair to woods and hedges for the purpose of nidification. 1 A correspondent of Loudon's Magazine of Natural History had a nest of this bird brought to him, which he describes as follows: "It was built upon a wooden rake, that was carelessly lying on the ground in a cottage garden at Bransford, near Worcester; in this nest the female laid five eggs, and even sat on them, indifferent to any one passing in the garden, till the nest was taken by a boy belonging to the cottage. The nest is carelessly put together, yet prettily constructed of long green moss, intermixed with the catkins of the hazel, and fibres, the interior lined with thin straw and wool; eggs thickly spotted with brown."* BEAN CRAKE.-A name for the Land Rail. BEAN GOOSE (Anser ferus, LISTER.) Anas segetum. Gmel. Syst. 2. p. 512.-Ind. Orn. 2. p. 843. 28.-Temm. Man. 820.-Raii. Syn. 136.- Bean Goose. Br. Zool. 2. No. 267. t. 94. f. 2.-Aret. Zool. 2. No. 472.~ Lath. Syn. 6. p. 464. 23.— Lewin, Br. Birds, 7. t. 239.- Pult. Cat. Dorset. p. 20.- Wale. Syn. 1. t. 65.Lister, Phil. Fram, 15. 1159.-Will. Orn. 274.-Flem. p. 126. Provincial.-Small Grey Goose. Common Wild Goose. This species, which Linnæus confounded with the Grey Lag,* is less than it, the weight being only from five pounds to upwards of seven ; length from two feet and a half to three feet. The bill is small, com Br. Zoology, 149. pressed near the end, of a whitish flesh-colour, or orange; except the tip, or what is termed the nail, which is black, (the great characteristic mark of distinction;) the edges of both mandibles are serrated, the irides hazel, or rufous brown. The head and neck cinereous brown; the whole underpart, as far as the legs, the same, but lighter; darkest on the thighs; the forehead speckled with white, behind which the feathers are dusky brown; the back is ash-colour; the lower part of the belly, upper and under tail coverts, white; scapulars brown ash-colour, edged with white; the greater quill-feathers are black: exterior webs grey; secondaries cinereous grey, margined with black on the outer webs; coverts grey, the larger ones tipped with white: legs dark orange. There appears to be some little variation in the plumage of these birds; in some the bill is of a dull brownish red: the upper part of the back, scapulars, and wing coverts, brown, dashed with cinereous, and tipped with white: greater quills plain dusky black: secondaries grey, tipped and margined with white. There is a callous knob on the elbow of the wing. The windpipe increases in size about the middle, and its branchings into the lungs are short and tumid.* These birds come to us early in the winter, sometimes in large flocks, and are as often seen in the uplands as in the fens, resorting to fields of green wheat, which at that season they seem to prefer to any other food. In the spring they retire northward to breed; many are said to inhabit Lewis, one of the Hebrides, all the summer, and breed there. It is frequently killed and sold at market for the fen or grey lag goose; and indeed is more frequent, but has long been confounded with that bird. The specimen from which our description is taken, was killed in Wales; but we have seen it as far west as Devonshire. BEARDED TIT (Parus biarmicus, LINNEUS.) *Parus biarmicus, Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 1011.—Lath. Ind. 2. p. 570. sp. 23.-Parus barbatus, Briss. 3. p. 567. 12.-Le Mesange barbue ou moustaché, Buff. 5. p. 518. t. 18.-Temm. 1. p. 298.-Least Butcher Bird, Edw. t. 55.-Bearded Titmouse, Penn. Br. Zool. 1. p. 167. Arct. Zool. 2. p. 248.-Lath. Syn. 4. p. 552. 20.-Don. Br. Birds, 1. p. 1.-Shaw's Zool. 10. p. 62.-Bewick, 1. p. 246.-Mont. Orn. Dict. & Supp.-Selby, 1. p. 236.-Flem. p. 81. Provincial.-Reed Pheasant.* This very elegant species is about the size of the tomtit, but on account of the length of the tail, is much longer, measuring about six inches and a quarter. The bill is near half an inch long, of an orange colour, differing somewhat from the rest of the genus, being a little arcuated; the upper mandible longest; irides yellow. The head is pale ash-colour; beneath the eye is a tuft of loose black feathers, ending in a point downwards; the hind part of the neck and back light rufousorange; scapulars whitish; throat white; breast cinereous flesh-colour; belly, sides, and thighs, like the back, but paler; vent black; quillfeathers dusky; the inner webs of the primores white; the secondaries edged, and those next the body tipped with the same colour as the back; the tail is about three inches long, and very cuneiform, nearly the colour of the back; the three outer feathers more or less tipped with white; legs black. The female differs in having no black mark under the eye or at the vent; the head is light ferruginous, spotted with black; between the bill and eye a dusky spot. The history of this species is very little known, although it breeds with us, and continues the whole year. It is found in the marshes amongst the reeds between Erith and London, in Gloucestershire, and amongst the great reedy tracks near Cowbit in Lancashire. We have also killed it near Winchelsea in Sussex, amongst the reeds close to the sea-shore, in the month of June; there were five together, doubtless the brood of that year. One of the young which we procured had its nestling feathers much the colour of the female; but the feathers were of a looser texture, as in all young birds. We took much pains to find the nest, but without success, unless it is so like that of the reed wren's as not to be distinguished, as that bird bred in the same place, and many such nests were taken. Authors have differed with respect to the shape and composition of the nest, as well as in the place of nidification; one making it the shape of a purse suspended to a branch of a willow; another gives it placed on the ground amongst sedge of a loose texture, composed of the down of the reed intermixed with narrow leaves; and that it lays four eggs of a reddish white, spotted with brown; others have undoubtedly taken the nest of the reed wren for it; so that no certain conclusion is to be drawn from these various accounts. By some unaccountable mistake Montagu's description of the nest of the bottle tit was given in Pennant's British Zoology, as belonging to this bird. *"The borders," says Mr. Hoy, "of the large pieces of fresh water in Norfolk, called Broads, particularly Hickling and Horsey Broads, are the favourite places of resort of this bird; indeed it is to be met with in that neighbourhood, wherever there are reeds in any quantity with fenny land adjoining. During the autumn and winter they are found dispersed, generally in small parties, throughout the whole length of the Suffolk coast, wherever there are large tracts of reeds. I have found them numerous, in the breeding season, on the skirts of |