Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/202

176 at the time, but this fortunately escaped. The rough winds of the past winter would doubtless account in some measure for the unusual number of this species and that of the Short-horned Owl which have visited us this season.—

—These birds appear to have been uncommonly numerous in different parts of the country during the past autumn and winter months, and this district has also been visited by them in some numbers. Four to my knowledge have fallen victims to the gun, and I have heard of others having been seen. The last obtained was a very fine old male, shot at Patrington on the 24th January last. This bird was very fat, and in its stomach was a quantity of fur and the remains of one or more field voles. A Rough-legged Buzzard frequented our low grounds all the winter, and was at length shot. It proved to be an immature female. The stomach contained mouse's fur, and the bird was very fat. This low-lying country has been inundated for many miles, with here and there little islands studded about, on which the rats, mice and moles were driven to take shelter, and on these there is little doubt the Buzzards fared sumptuously. I quite endorse what Mr. Sclater says about second-hand information. I have had so much of it, and found it so wholly unreliable, that in a very great majority of cases it certainly is not worth printing. The so-called "eagle" sent to Beverley has come under my observation, and Mr. Sclater is quite correct in his surmises. It is an immature Rough-legged Buzzard, and is at present alive and well.— (Beverley).

.—On February 4th I saw a magnificent old male Merlin here, with bright blue back and orange breast. Since that I have seen another blue male rather paler in colour, and a female. As mentioned in my note in February's 'Zoologist,' this is somewhat earlier than I usually see male Merlins here. As a general rule, females predominate in autumn and males in spring about here.— (Cobham Hall).

—About the second week in January a male Kestrel was shot here, which was hardly distinguishable from an old female, except in slightly smaller size and a warmer tone of rufous on the back. The tail was slightly washed with blue, but not so much as in some old females. Even the upper tail-coverts were rufous, and the feathers on the nape were whitish, forming a rather merlin-like collar. I took it at first for a small female.—

—One day towards the end of January last some boys noticed a bird in a tree near the iron bridge in the Barking Road, Poplar. They frightened it out, and as the poor Owl was not used to flying by day it soon paid the penalty for its rashness in venturing out. It was brought to my office in the flesh, but as I was away the person who had it thought best to make a skin of it for me. It is a very nicely marked