188 THE BIEDS OF OXFORDSHIEE. 



This example is recorded by Gould in his Birds of Great 

 Britain^ where the date is mis-stated as November^ 1862, and 

 by Mr. C. M. Prior in the Zoologist for 1877 (quoted in 

 YarrelFs History of British Birds, 4th edition^ vol. iv, p. 226), 

 where the locality is mis-spelt as Osmoor. 



THE GLOSSY IBIS. 



Plegadis falcineUiis. 

 The Glossy Ibis is an accidental visitor. Dr. Lamb writes : 

 'A male of this very rare bird was shot a few miles from 

 Reading in September, 1793, while flying over the Thames 

 in company with another, and were supposed to be Bitterns. 

 Having sent the description of the bird to our celebrated 

 naturalist, Mr. Sowerby, F.L.S., who has favoured the 

 world with it, accompanied with a coloured drawing, in his 

 British Miscellany, table xvii, p. ^^, I must refer the 

 Society to that work.'' [Ornlthologia Bercherla.) This bird, 

 then in the possession of Dr. Lamb, is stated by Montagu 

 to have been shot between Henley and Reading, and to have 

 been intermediate between the fully adult and transitional 

 stages of plumage, then known as the Bay and Glossy Ibises ; 

 the young bird being styled the Green Ibis. [Ornithological 

 Bictionary : Svj^p lenient.) 



1 a\ 



THE GREY LAG GOOSE. \ ^ 



Anser cinereus. 



The Grey Lag is the true Wild Goose, formerly resident 

 in the English fens, where, however, it has ceased to breed 

 for the last himdred years. It is now a very rare visitor 

 to any part of Southern Britain, being less migratory in its 

 habits than some of its congeners. 



Considerable mystery enshrouds the Grey Wild Geese 

 which visit Oxon from the fact that specimens are so 

 rarely shot. The Messrs. Matthews, when writing their ac- 

 count of our birds, took it for granted that this was the species 



