Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/134

1300 constantly met with the water-rail in the same places as the moorhen is generally met with, during every month in the year; and more especially in the hard frosts, when I have frequently seen four and five and more in a day, whilst beating for wild fowl, and when, for want of sufficient cover to conceal it, as in the summer months, the wa- ter-rail may he easily seen running along the bottom of ditches until forced to fly, and which, when once fairly on the wing, it will do at a pretty rapid rate; suddenly alight- ing and skulking along with great quickness to the nearest place of concealment, from whence it is difficult to make it rise a second time. — Id.

Occurrence of Sabine^s Snipe in Hampshire. In looking over a collection of stuff- ed birds at a gamekeeper's near here, I found a specimen of Sabine's snipe (Scolopax Sabini), which he considered to be a black snipe, and merely a variety. I told him to keep the bird for me, but when I went again for it, it was gone. He said he shot it on Basing moor. — P.L. Sclater ; Hoddington House, Odiham.

On the Rusty Tinge of the Plumage of Wild Swans. On looking at Mr. Yarrell's account of Bewick's swan (Cygnus Bewickii), there is one circumstance which a little puzzles me. He states concerning the plumage, that even in the second winter, the head and breast are strongly marked with rusty red. Now in the youngest bird of the three which I have recorded (Zool. 942) as having been pre- served by myself last winter, the head and breast were snow white ; this, therefore, must have been in at least its third winter, and yet, to quote my own words, "the loop of the trachea was not more than an inch and a half from the anterior edge of the sternum." Surely this would indicate that the bird in question was not so old as two years and a half. If not, what must have been the age of the oldest of these speci- mens, in which the trachea was so much more developed ? I have seen the common swan, at all ages, with its head and neck deeply tinged with exactly this colour, rusty red, from feeding among weeds. Can this be the explanation of the colouring of Mr. Yarrell's specimens ? And may not this swan attain its perfect plumage in the second year ? I cannot think that my bird can have been older. — H.T. Frere; Aylsham, March 3, 1846.

White-tailed Eagle, Haliæetus albicilla. The adult bird of this species is .said to have been taken in Norfolk, but we believe without sufficient authority, and certainly no instance of its occurrence has come to our knowledge. The immature birds are, however, by no means uncommon, one or two being generally procured in the course of every autumn or winter, from which it may be inferred that a por- tion of the young birds which are hatched in more northern countries, find their way to our coasts when driven by their parents from the places where they were reared ; it being a well-known fact, that the