Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/247

Rh appearance of the feathers I concluded that the bird was probably breeding, and searched diligently for a nest, but without success.— (7, Holloway Head, Birmingham).

Food of the Barn Owl.—So much has been written in connection with the food of this species and its admitted usefulness to the farmer, that little remains to be added. During the recent gales in March a great elm near my house was blown down. This tree had to my knowledge, for forty-five years, been the residence of a pair of Barn Owls (Strix flammea), who regularly nested there. Since the loss of their home I have had a small barrel, duly prepared, fixed amongst the boughs of an ancient yew, hoping thus to persuade my old neighbours to remain with us. On sawing the rotten stem of the elm into sections we found bushels of Owls' castings; these were composed of a vast number of the Common Mouse, also Some Long-tailed and Short-tailed Mice, the skull of a Starling, and hundreds of the skulls and upper mandible of the House Sparrow. The Mice and Sparrows were no doubt seized from the stack-sides, for I have often seen the Owls thus employed, or sitting on the watch hard by on some post of vantage. The tenant could never understand how it was I was so anxious that the Owls should be left unmolested, and this exhibition of the disjecta membra of hundreds of Mice and Sparrows has come like a revelation to him. Farmers here have an absurd idea that Owls enter their Pigeoncotes and carry off the young Pigeons, and it appears impossible to persuade them to the contrary.— (Great Cotes House, R.S.O., Lincoln).

Rare Partridges in Leadenhall Market.—I observed in the 'Field' of the 19th March a notice from the pen of my friend Mr. Tegetmeier of the presence of a large number of Daurian Partridges in Leadenhall Market, and may remark that this is the second time that a consignment of these birds has been offered for sale in that market. I saw the first lot unpacked, and they were rolled in paper and hard frozen, and then packed in a large sugar-barrel, and arrived here in very good condition. The Daurian Partridge (Perdix daurica and P. sibirica of Pallas, Perdix barbata, Verr.) inhabits Eastern Siberia, the Amoor country, Dauria, &c, ranging south through Mantchuria and Mongolia to North China, and west to the TianShan Mountains in Turkestan; so that the birds sold here must have traversed a great distance in a frozen state before reaching this country. This Partridge is not a rare bird in museums, or indeed in private collections, and can be had of most continental dealers, and is quite distinct from our European Partridge. Simultaneously a considerable number of Redlegged Partridges from Central Asia (Caccabis magna, Prjev.) were on sale in Leadenhall Market. The range of this species is given by Mr. Ogilvy-Grant