450 Short Communications : — 



Yarrow, something less than a month had intervened. As 

 soon as I had ascertained that mine was away in the manner 

 I have described, I concluded that it would reach the sea, at 

 the latest, during the second night, concealing itself by the 

 banks among underwood during the day. — W. L., Selkirk- 

 shire, form t d [i enomb 



P.S. The following winter I had another swan sent me, 

 that I am inclined to think is of the same species. It was 

 one of twelve or thirteen that rested for a while, as they often 

 do, in St. Mary's Loch ; and it also was shot at, and had a 

 wing broken. It could not be taken, and the others left the 

 loch. For nearly a week it was lost sight of, until a shep- 

 herd ascertained, by its footprints in the snow, that it regularly 

 ascended a high hill in the morning, and returned to the 

 water to feed during the night. He accordingly tracked it, 

 and found it sitting on the very top of the hill, and secured 

 it by the help of his dogs as it was making for the loch. It 

 is, I believe, still alive, and in the possession of Robert 

 Pringle, Esq., of Clifton, M.P. for Selkirkshire. — W. L. 

 Feb. 25. 1833. >o vino 



Geese from the Netherlands shot on the Trent. — Just before 

 I left Derbyshire, five geese had been shot upon the Trent, 

 with brass collars round their necks, which stated that they 

 had come from Baak, near Zutphen, in Guelderland. Sir G. 

 Crewe is to have one of them; but I have not seen them at 

 present. I had heard that they are of the species called the 

 laughing goose [^f'nser erythropus Flem.~], They were 

 perhaps alarmed at the noise of the bombardment at 

 Antwerp. — Andrew Bloxam. Rugby, near Dunchurch, Janu- 

 ary 1. 1833. {In a Letter* to the Rev. W. T. Bree, Allesley 

 Rectory, Warwickshire.) 



A Duck that had strayed from Denmark (?) shot in Sussex. 

 — " As some people were shooting in the parish of Trotton, 

 in Sussex, they killed a duck in that dreadful winter 1708-9, 

 with a silver collar about its neck, on which were engraved 

 the arms of the king of Denmark." [White, in the Letter to 

 Daines Barrington dated Feb. 12. 1771.) — J.D. 



Notes on, and a Description of, the Black-headed Gull (Ldrus 

 ridibundus), as the same has been observed near Southminster, 

 on the Coast of Essex ,• also a List of the Birds seen, in the 

 Course of Twelve Months, in the Neighbourhood of Southminster. 

 .-— The black-headed gulls make their appearance on this 

 coast (Essex) about the third week in March ; at which time 

 the common gulls (Larus canus) cease to roam inland in 

 search of food, the black-headed gulls supplying their place. 

 On the first arrival of the black-headed gulls, the heads of 



