Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/278

252 the morning, and had made a very varied bag, the sport being doubly interesting in consequence of the wood not being regularly preserved, and being still the haunt of many an animal and bird, such as the Marten-cat and Buzzard, which would have received but scant mercy at the hands of most owners. Would that there were more such refuges for the destitute still to be found! They had sat down to enjoy—and what more enjoyable on such an occasion?—their al fresco luncheon, and had not been long so engaged, when one of the boys who had been beating cried out, "I see a Marten!" and sure enough there was a fine Marten-cat peering down upon them from a Squirrel's "draw" just above their heads. There was a rush for the guns, but my cousin was quickest on his legs, and soon a fine male Marten-cat was lying at his feet, which now adorns his rooms as a memorial of a most pleasant excursion. I may add that up to this time this wood had been a well-known haunt of Martens, and although of course not plentiful, they are not considered rarities. I am afraid, however, this will not long continue to be the case, but I am sure that every one who is interested in the Natural History of our island will say with me, "The longer the better."— (Britford Vicarage, Salisbury).

[We should be glad if any readers of 'The Zoologist' would enumerate any localities where the Marten-cat may yet with certainty be found.—]

—In addition to the occurrences of the Purple Gallinule in the United Kingdom mentioned by Mr. Cecil Smith and yourself in the May number of 'The Zoologist' (pp. 227, 228), I beg to inform you that a very fine specimen of this bird was caught by a navvy on an embankment of the North-Western Railway, not far from Wellingborough, in Northamptonshire, and brought to me at Lilford, where it is now alive and well in my aviary. I am sorry that, as I have not my notes here with me, I cannot give you the precise date of this occurrence, but my impression is that it was early in 1873. This bird bore no traces of captivity.—

—The facts forwarded to you by me relative to the occurrence in Somersetshire of the Purple Gallinule were supplied me by the owner of the bird, and by a gentleman who is his near neighbour. There can be no reason why their statements should not be received that one bird was captured and another seen. It is beyond me to understand on what grounds the Purple Gallinules, and some other birds, which have been obtained in this country should be set down as escapes. There is no antecedent impossibility in any bird that can fly finding its way to England; there is no great improbability in birds which belong to the South European or North African Ornis straggling occasionally to this country. It is not easy, it is well nigh impossible, to lay down any hard and fast rule, and to pronounce of one bird that it is an escape, of another that it can only be a genuine immigrant. Unless there are the