208 



THE NvVTURALIST. 



featliers of the back and upper wing 

 coverts of a reddish brown ; breast, 

 abdomen, under surface of its wings 

 and tail, white ; assuming a slight 

 yellowish tinge on the sides of the 

 breast. 



Sturnus vulgaris. — A mature speci- 

 men, the whole surface of its plumage 

 white : the feathers of crown of head, 

 neck, throat, and breast are termi- 

 nated with a small round spot of 

 glossy white ; spots of a reddish hue 

 are scattered over the back and lesser 



wing coverts, 



assuming a much 



lighter hue on the greater wing 

 coverts, and in the margins of the 

 wings and tail feathers ; the under 

 wing coverts are tinged with a pale 

 reddish brown. 



Hirundo riparia. — Mr. Knights, 

 bird preserver of this city, informed 

 me that he had sent to him for pre- 

 servation about a month since, an 

 albino variety of Hirundo riparia. — 

 T. E. GuNN, Norwich, Oct. 91st. 



Instance of Audacity in a Sparrow 

 Hawk. — While out shooting yester- 

 day I fired at a Snipe which fell 

 about forty yards from me. When 

 in the act of reloading a Sparrow 

 Hawk pounced upon the Snipe and 

 carried it off ! but upon my shouting 

 at him, he dropped the Snipe and flew 

 away. — W. C. Hoesfall, Horsforth 

 Low Hall, Oct. 12th, 1864, 



Occurrence of the Osprey near London. 

 — Last Thursday, (Oct. 6th), as my 

 birdstuffer, Mr. Briggs, was stand- 



ing in the garden at Formosa, Cook- 

 ham, he observed a large bird come 

 slowly sailing over his head. He 

 thought from its flight it would not 

 stop," and he therefore did not fetch 

 his gun which was at some distance, 

 but stood looking at it. The bird, 

 however, just as it got over his head 

 made a circle in the air, and seemed 

 to take stock of him. He called to 

 a man to run for his gun but the 

 latter arrived too late, as the bird 

 had departed. He only escaped for 

 a minute however, as a young man 

 a few hundred yards down the river 

 who was out shooting Wood Pigeons, 

 saw the bird approaching and hit it 

 in the wing, when it was despatched 

 ignominiously by a blow from a 

 boat-mop. It was at first said to be 

 the Golden Eagle {Falco chrysaetos, 

 Lin.) but turned out to be a fine 

 specimen of the Osprey (Falco hali- 

 (Betus, Lin.) It was sent elsewhere 

 for preservation, so I was not able 

 to learn the dimensions. — E. B. S. 



A few days ago I observed in a 

 newspaper an account of a wholesale 

 destruction of fish, (principally chub 

 and barbel), this destruction was 

 defended on the ground that chub 

 and barbel destroyed the salmon roe. 

 Can any of your readers inform me 

 if it is an established fact in Natural 

 History that the coarse fish destroy 

 the salmon roe ? — Piscatok. 



