Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/134

100 hardy Owl, but if two males are together they will fight, and probably claw out an eye. It is evident that the Eagle Owl can see but very imperfectly in the daytime. The iris is very yellow in the young bird, but gets much lighter after eighteen months. In few birds do the pupils dilate more, and in the sitting bird, when exhausted with the labours of incubation, they become almost white. The eyes get weak if they sit long in the sun; and if one eye is exposed to the light, and one is in the shade, one pupil is then much larger than the other. The ear-tufts are depressed in repose, but if a dog or a stranger appears they are immediately erected, and the whole bird swells itself out in a very formidable way, snapping its mandibles with a loud noise, which is done in the act of opening, not in closing them.

Pintail hybrids.—Mr. Knight had three broods of Pintail × Wild Duck hybrids from the same birds which did so well on his pond last year, some of which by June 16th were three weeks old, but unfortunately several of the young died from the drought, and some which I took charge of were killed by rats; but it proves the facility with which the Pintail and Wild Duck interbreed. Two pair of Mr. Knight's hybrids placed on separate ponds have, however, shown no signs of breeding again.

Black Lark.—On Oct. 30th a Black Lark (Melanocorypha yeltoniensis) died after eating a piece of yew, though it had only bitten off a few tips. Subtle as is the poison of the yew, I do not remember to have heard of a cage-bird succumbing to it before, but I have known Partridges killed by it, and Pheasants have been poisoned (see 'Field,' Nov. 25th, Dec. 2nd, 1876). M. yeltoniensis has been taken in Belgium about a dozen times, so the appearance of this handsome bird may be expected some day in East Anglia.