Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/237

Rh equal to the sixth; tarsus, one inch and three-eighths; middle toe and its claw, one inch and five-eighths. The extreme leugth of the bird could not well be taken, as the tail had been pulled out. Colour:—Bill, greenish yellow; base of upper mandible darker; legs, green; top of the head, dark olive-brown; back of neck lighter; centre of back, black, the edges and tips of many of the feathers being marked with stripes, rather than spots, of white; scapulars and wing-coverts, plain olive-brown; chin and throat, dull white; breast and sides, olivaceous buff, without a shade of slate-grey; vent and under tail-coverts, dusky brown, slightly barred and spotted with dull white. Although at least three examples of Crex Baillonii have been obtained in Cornwall, the above is the first recorded instance of the capture of Crex pusilla in that county.— (Stonehouse, Devon).

[In Mr. Rodd's 'List of Cornish Birds,' 2nd ed., 1869, it is stated that Mr. Drew, naturalist, late of Plymouth, had a specimen of the Little Crake, which he said he had received from that neighbourhood. His surmise that the species would turn up some day in Cornwall has now been verified.—]

.—It has been stated that Kites used formerly to breed in London. In the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Wild Birds Protection will be found this statement by one of the witnesses examined (Appendix, p. 169):—"I have seen in old London newspapers references to taking Kites' nests in Hyde Park, and it used to breed in the clumps of trees at Gray's Inn, and other places in London, between one and two centuries ago." I shall be much obliged to any correspondent who will enable me to verify this statement by referring me to any published accounts on this subject.—

—I do not think the nesting of the Wood Pigeon, Columba palumbus, near a house is an uncommon occurrence. During the few years of my residence near Pershore, in Worcestershire, a pair of these birds nested every season iu a deodar, within ten yards of my front door, the branches of which were touched by every carriage that came to the door. On one occasion the uest was not more than seven feet from the ground, and I used to go nearly every morning and pull down the branch to see how the young birds were getting on.— (Meadow Croft, Reigate).

.—From observations which I have made in this district during the past winter I can fully confirm Mr. Cordeaux's remarks (p. 102), as to the scarcity, if not total absence, of the Common Snipe and Jack Snipe. In fact, the disorder among our autumn