Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/495

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Lesser Shrew in Devon.—Early in September my friend Mr. Frank Brownsword sent me an adult Lesser Shrew, Sorex minutus, which had been brought into his house at Shebbear, North Devon, by a cat.— (Sale).

Montagu's Harrier breeding in Ireland.—On August 24th last I received a letter from my cousin in Co. Kerry enclosing in the flesh what I identified as a young female Montagu's Harrier. He had shot it on Aug. 20th, and writes:—"I have seen six birds of this kind (four young and two old) constantly about in a rocky ravine near here, and the one I enclose is a young bird.... The old hawks make a strange clucking noise, and the young a kind of whistling scream." I have skinned the bird, and Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, on inspection, kindly confirmed my identification. The exact spot where the specimen was killed has been given me, but I refrain from disclosing it, in case any of the birds should nest there again next year. According to Mr. Howard Saunders's 'Manual of British Birds,' Circus cineraceus has only occurred three times in Ireland, and has never before been reported as having nested; so that the above facts seem well worth recording.— (St. Margaret's, West Dulwich, S.E.).

The Eggs of the Roseate Tern.—With reference to my remarks on the nesting of the Roseate Tern, Sterna dougalli, in the British Isles, which appeared in the April number of 'The Zoologist' (p. 165), it will be remembered that I therein emphatically stated that their eggs were easily distinguishable from those of allied species, notwithstanding the late Mr. Henry Seebohm's statement to the contrary in his recent work on Eggs of British Birds, and I will now endeavour to describe their general character. I was under the impression, until quite recently, that these notes would be original, but I find that the late (?) Rev. J.C. Atkinson, in his book on 'British Birds, their Eggs and Nests,' published in 1861, says: "Closer observation only has distinguished between their eggs and those of their more numerous associates." This is the fact, and an experienced eye can