176 THE BIRDS OF OXFORDSHIRE. 



THE PUFFIN. ' '-^ ' 



Fratercida ardica. 



The PufRn is an accidental wanderer from the coast. One 

 was caug'ht alive at Tackley, near Woodstock, on the 22nd 

 November, 1882, and sent to Mr. W. C. Darbey, of Oxford, 

 who informed me that it was apparently not much exhausted 

 by its flight. Another, described as a Little Auk, but, from 

 the description given, evidently of this species, was recorded 

 in the Leaf eld Parish Magazine^ for January, 1883^ to have 

 been picked up by the road side at Fairspear, about the end of 

 the same month. These two birds doubtless came inland to- 

 gether. An immature bird, with bill imperfectly developed, 

 was taken alive at Fencot in Otmoor on October 9, 1888, and 

 was bought in the Oxford market by Mr. — Lambert (W. W. 

 Fowler, MS). 



THE GREAT NORTHERN' DIVER. \w 



Colymhus glacialis. 



The Great Northern Diver, a casual visitor, has occurred 

 in some half-dozen instances. The Messrs. Matthews record 

 an immature specimen found in a garden on Headington Hill, 

 Oxford, one morning after a remarkably stormy night in 

 October, 1834, which was kept alive at the Anatomy School 

 during six weeks, and afterwards preserved there, the parti- 

 culars of which were communicated to them by Dr. Kidd, the 

 Regius Professor of Anatomy ; also one shot at King^s Weir, 

 Oxford, in 1845, and another on the Thames at Whitchurch 

 (Pangbourne), in 1794 [Zoologist, p. 2540). An example in 

 the University Museum is labelled 'Cassington, 1828,^ and 

 another shot on the pond at Wroxton Abbey is preserved 

 there. An immature bird, in the possession of a fisherman at 

 Standlake, was shot on the Isis a few years before 1883 (W. 

 H. Warner, M8.). 



