202 MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



landed proprietor. The excellent remarks of his, quoted in the article on 

 persecuted animals, by Dr. Morris, editor of "The Naturalist," appearing in 

 Kidd's pleasing ^'Journal of Natural History," are surely sufficient to settle 

 this point both with the learned and unlearned world. What with vulgar 

 prejudices, and wanton destructiveness towards eggs and birds, encouraged, 

 instead of being checked, by the scientific, in their over anxiety for making 

 collections, and a grudging jealousy of losing a few brace of game, our 

 Hawks and Eagles will follow the fate of the vanishing Bittern, and extinct 

 Bustard; and instead of being admired in their living state, be known only 

 to a future race, like the diornis of New Zealand, by their wasting skeletons. 



Barnsley, July 23rcZ., 1853. 



3JliBnllnnfnM Ifntirts. 



Malformation of Babbits' Teeth. — On the 18th. of July, I had brought to me for preservation 

 the head of a Rabbit with the fore teeth curiously formed; the two upper curved towards the 

 roof of the mouth, but were unfortunately partly broken, whilst the two lower grew out to the 

 length of one inch and a half and curved upwards, and appeared to be worn away towards the 

 ends. The animal was shot by Mr. Clark, of "Welton, near Louth, and was apparently full- 

 grown. — J. Brown, Louth, July 25th., 1853. 



Albino Shrew, (Sorex araneus.) —As a matter of interest which you may perhaps think worthy 

 of record in the pages of "The Naturalist," I beg to state that yesterday my gamekeeper brought 

 nie in an albino specimen of the Common Shi-ew, {Sorex araneus, Linn.,) perfectly milk-white, 

 without a speck or stain about it. Bell, in his "History of British Quadrupeds," makes no 

 mention of a white variety, though he states that it is sometimes "spotted with white:" from 

 this I judge that a perfectly colourless example is sufficiently rare and curious to merit notice. 

 — W. V. Guise, Elmore Court, Gloucester, July 22nd., 1853. 



Montagu's Harrier. — On the 13th. of June last I found a nest of Montagu's Harrier, (Circus 

 Montagui,) on Roydon Fen, near Lynn. The nest, which contained two white eggs, was flat, 

 and composed of coarse grasses ; it was situated on the ground in a dry part of the Heath, and 

 surrounded on all sides by stunted shrubs. I had a good view of the hen bird, as she left the 

 nest, to which I had watched her, within a few feet of me. The Hen and Montagu's Harrier, 

 as well as the Short-eared Owl, used regularly to breed on this Heath, but I have not heard 

 of their eggs having been found there of late. — T. Southwell, Fakenham, Norfolk, August 

 1st., 1853. 



Does the Tawny Owl, (Symium stridula,) drinTcf — In "Morris' British Birds," the Tawny 

 Owl is said never to be known to drink : this is my sole excuse for the following notes from 

 the biography of an Owl of that species: — In 1848, or thereabouts, an Owl's nest was taken 

 from an old tree containing three Owlets; one of these came into tlie possession of my brother 

 while still too young to feed itself. AVith care and attention it was roared and became per- 

 fectly tame. The lodging set apart for it was an outhouse in which turf was kept for the use of 

 the house, (it being in Norfolk where turf is so extensively used as fuel.) The door of this outhouse 

 was almost continually open, and the Owl, though neither confined or clipped in the wings, was 

 almost as continually to be seen perched on the highest piece of turf, perfectly at his ease. A 

 small shallow tub, containing water, was kept standing in the house, and the Owl seemed to 

 delight in occasionally standing in the water, splashing it about and over himself by flapping 

 his wings. Whilst thus enjoying liis bath he would dip his bill in the water to drink, holding 

 up his head after each libation in the same manner as the domestic fowl, and this he did so 

 often that no one thought it at all an uncommon occurrence for a Tawny Owl to be thus 

 engaged. He was kept for nearly three years, when he is supposed to have been shot in one 

 of his nightly flights to a neighbouring wood, for he never returned as he had so often done 



