ACCIDENTAL VISITORS. 



231 



who threw his coat over it (Hillen in /iff.); Mr. Moor saw it stuffed in 

 Mr. Garrard's house in 1876 (Moor MS.); it is now in the possession of 

 Mr. Crewe of East Lodge, Burton-on-Trent, who writes that this 

 specimen is what Mr. Gould calls in his British Birds " Greenland 

 Falcon, White Race " (V. Crewe in liti.). 



Gyr -Falcon, Falco gyrfalco, L. 



2. An immature bird shot, in the act of devouring a hen, by Mr. George 

 Hunt, at Orford, Oct. 14, 1867; it is now in possession of his brother Mr. 

 E. J. Hunt, of Pimlico, by whom it was stuffed; this is the only instance 

 of the occurrence of the Norwegian Gyr- Falcon in Britain. Mr. Seebohm 

 observes : — "The head is somewhat darker than the back, and the under 

 parts, including the thighs, are longitudinally streaked ; it is probably a 

 bird of the year, which has not yet assumed the yellow legs." (Seebohm, 

 Hist. Brit. Birds, i., 19 ; see also Hele, Aid., 71; C. B.!)> 



Eed-Footed Falcon, Falco vespertinus, L. 



1. One shot in a marsh by Breydon in 1832, in possession of Mr. D. 

 B. Preston (Paget, Y., 3) ; now in Mr. J. H. Gurney's Collection 

 (Rambles of a Nat. in Egypt, by J. H. Gurney, jun., p. 283). f A young 

 male killed at Somerleyton, July 1862 ; in possession of Mr. H. Stevenson 

 (Stev. B. ofN. i, 20, and H. Stevenson in Z. 8725, C. B. !). 



Snowy Owl, Nyctea nivea (Daudin). 



1. One seen for a single day near a decoy at Herringfleet, Nov. 1878 

 (Col. Leathes in lift. 1883). A female killed at St. Andrews, near 

 Bungay in Feb. 1847, formerly in Mr. T. M. Spalding's Collection (Stev. 



* Mr. Hunt, who has kindly permitted perceptible black mystaeial streak or 



a photograph of his bird to be taken for pateb, Mr. Hunt says " this is very plain 



this work, writes in answer to my in my specimen, and tbe coloration darker 



enquiries as follows: — "The bead of tbis tbau in the Iceland Falcon." 

 specimen is certainly the darkest part 



. . . . it is of a uniform colour some- f " I have recently ascertained a 



what darker than the back. As to Mr. J. young male Red-footed Hobby in my 



H. Gurney, sen., and myself, we certainly father's Collection to be the specimen 



agreed that it was the same as the speci- recorded in Paget' s N. H. of Yarmouth. 



men marked Norway Gyr-ialcon from It was shot at Breydon not as Messrs. 



Kotzebue Sound in the British Museum, Paget say in 1832, but on the 1st of 



although somewhat darker . . . Mr. May, 1830. In all probability it was 



Sharpe told me . . . that he felt the first killed in Britain. Mr. D. B. 



satisfied about its being the Norway Preston, of Catton, to whose notes I am 



species, and asked me to allow Mr. indebted for clearing up the confusion, 



Seebohm to examine it, which he did." saysitwaskilledbebind Vauxhail Gardens, 



In reference to Prof. Newton's remark and he saw it shot." (J. II. Gurney, jun. 



(in Yarrell's Birds, i., 47), that in the U.S.). 

 Gyr-Falcon there is commonly a very 



2<a 



