Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/206

180 amongst the roots of the yew-trees overhanging the tops of the rocks, and are thus comparatively secure. I saw several yesterday, and also heard their grunting notes in different places, but not a Wood Pigeon was to be seen. Perhaps I ought also to have added that there were more Sparrowhawks found nesting in this locality last year than I have ever known; they may have scared the Wood Pigeons away, but they certainly killed but few; when they do kill them the act is easily traceable.— (Castle Eden, Durham).

[The circumstance of Stock Dove frequenting and even breeding amongst rocks is, we believe, unusual, although not unnoticed. Some years ago the fact that the Stock Dove occasionally breeds in the rocks on the Dorsetshire coast was recorded in 'The Field,' 14th April, 1866, and quite recently a correspondent writing in the Natural History columns of that journal (3rd March, 1877), stated that he had observed Stock Doves congregating amongst rocks at Merthyr Tidfil. He shot two of them in order to identify the species.—]

—In the last published part of the Nat. Hist. Transactions of Northumberland and Durham (vol. v., part iii.) Mr. John Hancock records the capture of a Passenger Pigeon in Yorkshire. At p. 337 he says:—"On the 13th October, 1876, I received a specimen of this North-American bird from the Dowager Marchioness of Normanby, who stated in her letter which accompanied the bird that 'it was shot here to day by Lord Harry Phipps.' The bird must therefore have been killed on the 12th, and as her ladyship's letter is headed 'Mulgrave Castle,' it is clear also that the bird was obtained at Mulgrave, the seat of the Marquis of Normanby." Mr. Hancock adds that "the quill-feathers in the wings are much worn and broken, and on the forehead above the bill they are apparently worn off to the skull, as though the bird had been trying to get out of a cage or some other enclosure; therefore I cannot come to any other conclusion than that this specimen, a female, had made its escape from confinement." It may be observed that the Passenger Pigeon has been previously recorded to have been met with in the British Islands on five different occasions as follows:—One, Monymeal, Fifeshire, December, 1825 (Fleming, Hist. Brit. An. p. 145); one near Royston, Hertfordshire, July, 1844 (Yarrell, Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. ii., p. 317); one near Tring, Hertfordshire (Yarrell, op. cit.); one near Tralee, 1848 (Thompson, Nat. Hist. Ireland, Birds, iii., p. 443); and one near Mellerstain, Berwickshire (Turnbull, Birds of East Lothian, p. 41). With regard to this last, however, it is stated that a gentleman in Berwickshire had turned out several Passenger Pigeons shortly before it was shot.—

—A gentleman residing at Bicester has an immature example of this rare bird, and has very kindly collected for me a few particulars concerning its capture. It was shot on the 5th August,