MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 61 



by means of a long string fastened to the triggers he eifected a general 

 dist;harge on the first favourable opportunity, and in this way he once obtained 

 nine Bustards at one shot. I am happy to say that at West Acre they 

 wei'e better cared for, every protection having been extended to them. A 

 lady residing at Swaifham has one in her collection taken at Cougham, about 

 twenty years ago, also a pair and one young one, which, when alive, were in 

 the possession of her flimily. A gentleman residing at Gayton informs me that 

 he has seen as many hens together as eleven, but not for several years, and 

 he is of opinion that they are extinct in this county. Many years ago, a 

 hen Bustard was brought to him by his shepherd, very much devoured by 

 the Crows; he had it preserved, and it was afterwards presented to the Norwich 

 Museum. In 1831, a female Bustard was shot at Cougham; in 1832, another 

 succeeded in rearing its young near Thetford; and the eggs, five in number, 

 of three which bred on Massingham Heath, the same year, were taken away 

 in ignorance of their being polygamous, and the sexes parting company during 

 incubation, no males having been seen in the neighbourhood. Early in 1838, 

 another female was shot in a turnip-field at Dersingham, near Lynn, which is 

 the last that I can learn has been seen in this county. The Bustard, although 

 at other times so shy, appears during the season of incubation to lose much 

 of its natural wildness of character, and to become so tame as to admit of 

 a near approach. The Rev. E. Lubboek, in the work before quoted, mentions 

 an instance of one at Eldon, near Thetford, which, while sitting upon her 

 nest, admitted of so near an approach as almost to suffer herself to be taken 

 by a casting-net. Her two eggs were hatched under a Hen, and each pro- 

 duced a male bird. The above are a few particulars of the final history 

 of this noble bird in Norfolk, and should your contributors in other counties, 

 particularly Wilts, and Cambridge, be inclined to favour us with their remarks, 

 I am sure they would prove most interesting to your subscribers. — T. Southwell, 

 Lynn, Norfolk, December iSth., 1851. 



Owl, (Strix flammea.) — A tame Owl was kept by a friend of mine in his 

 house, for the purpose of destroying mice. He found it one morning quite 

 dead, and an immense Rat by its side also dead; both bearing marks of a 

 very severe combat. — S. Hannaford, Jan., Totnes, Devon, December, 1851. 



Hawks. — I have frequently noticed that the male Hawk seldom comes near 

 the nest whilst the hen is sitting; he brings the food to some tree adjoining, 

 which is fetched away by the female. I was pleased, a few days since, to 

 see my observation confinned by Mr. St. John, in his "Tour in Sutherland," 

 vol. i., p. 216, as follows: — ^'Whilst I was fishing in the Findhorn, at a 

 place where a great many Kestrels bred, one of these birds came flying up 

 the course of the river with a small bird in his claws. When he came 

 opposite to the rock where his nest was, he rose in the air, and began to call 

 loudly and shrilly for his mate, who soon came out from the rocks, and taking 



