Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/474

448 made its escape during the summer. My bird was perfect when it got away, and the same may be said of this. As soon as I had the latter in my hand I saw that it was the green-backed species, like mine, that is to say, Porphyrio smaragdonotus of Africa. Hickling Broad is no great distance from Northrepps, and if it once got there it might easily maintain itself among the swamps in the neighbourhood.— (Northrepps Hall, Norwich).

—A few days ago a Partridge struck the engine-driver's bull's-eye of one of our Norwich engines and smashed it. The guard who produced the Partridge said that the glass was an inch thick. This was not a case of attraction by vivid light, but of simple collision.—

—A Wood Sandpiper, a bird of the year, was killed near Barnstaple about the middle of August. Among some Bartailed Godwits shot on the sand-flats of the Taw on September 13th was one which was already in nearly complete winter plumage. It was in company with others, which were still exhibiting some of the red livery of summer, and furnishes an example of a well-known phenomenon in the moulting of birds—that it is no uniform process, but one which varies both in time and degree in different individuals.— (Bishop's Lydeard).

—A specimen of the Knot, with the prevailing red tint peculiar to the summer plumage of the adult, was brought to me on the 11th August, having been shot on the Exe below Topsham. This is only the second specimen in summer plumage which has occurred on this river. The other was killed in May, 1844.— (Exeter).

—The Rev. Murray A. Mathew calls attention (p. 387) to the recent scarcity of the Corn Crake in the Weest of England. He correlates the fact with increased drainage in the district, and consequent diminution of the smaller Mollusca on which the bird lives. But it is worthy of notice that in the meadows to the north-west of London, even where there has been no change in the drainage and no failure in the crop of snails, it becomes rarer every year. This spring I have not once heard its familiar cry where ten years ago—under apparently precisely similar circumstances—it seemed ubiquitous. While so many birds are profiting by the recent Acts passed for their preservation, it is curious to find a retiring species like the Corn Crake deserting its accustomed haunts.— (39, St. George's Road, Kilburn).

—A tine male example of this bird was shot near Banbury on the 23rd July last. Its stomach contained lots of dragonflies. The Hobby's partiality for this food has often been noticed. When killed it was engaged in devouring a young Partridge which it had just