VOL. X.] NOTES. 29'3 



WHITE'S THRUSHES IX SUSSEX. 



I WISH to record the following occurrences of White's Thrush 

 {Turdus dauma aureus) in Sussex. 



(1) A male shot at Brede on December 27, 1915. Examined 

 in the flesh by Mr. Ford Lindsa}-. 



(2) A male shot at St. Leonards on Februarj- 26, 191G. 

 Examined in the flesh by Mr. W. Ruskin Butterfield. 



There was one shot at Brede on Xovember 9, 1914, as 

 already recorded {Brit. Birds, Vol. VIII., p. 199). That was 

 a male also. Altogether these seem to make four recorded 

 Sussex specimens. J. B. Nichols. 



LITTLE OWL IN CHESHIRE. 



Referring to Dr. W. H. Dobies note on the occurrence of 

 the Little Owl in Cheshire {antea, p. 271), may I record that 

 on December 13th, 1915, I flushed a Little Owl from a hedge- 

 bottom between Prestbury and Mottram St. Andrews, 

 Cheshire. After following the bird and observing it through 

 my binoculars for some minutes, I returned to the spot Avhere 

 I had flushed it, and there found a Skylark A\ith the head 

 bitten through and still warm. M. V. Wenner. 



EVOLUTIONS OF A PEREGRINE AND STARLINGS 



IN BERKSHIRE. 



On March 18th, 1917, a flock of Starlings making its usual 

 afternoon flight near Reading encountered a Peregrine ; the 

 following evolutions are not without interest. For the first 

 few moments the Starlings seemed to be mobbing the falcon 

 (were the\ under the impression that he \\as a Kestrel ? It 

 is improbable that our Starlings are acquainted with the 

 larger falcons). Next moment panic seized the whole flock, 

 which fell out of the sky like a shower of stones, gathering 

 into itself as it neared the grass until it seemed a black ball. 

 W^hen almost in contact with the surface of the meadow it 

 spread out over the ground in all directions like running 

 water, and bore up again dispersedly.* The Peregrine, which 

 had stooped and followed the birds down, now stooped again, 

 and I think a third time, very rapidly, but vainly. He, for 

 it was a young male in very dark plumage, then ciicled and 

 held the skj^ for some minutes. About two hundred yards 

 aAvay the corpse of a pigeon killed in a manner suspiciously 

 like the method of the Peregrine, suggests that this had been 

 his hunting-ground earlier. I have word of him a -week or 

 more later at the same spot. I have seen a male Peregrine 



