^8 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xiii. 



HOBBY IN BEDFORDSHIRE. 



As the Hobby {Falco s. subbuteo) is new a rare bird in Bedford- 

 shire, it may be worth recording that I had a very close view 

 of one on May 24th, 1919, at Woburn. It was alternately 

 ■chasing and being chased by Sand-Martins, and came within 

 a few yards of the motor in which I was sitting. 



M. Bedford. 



OSPREY ON THE NORFOLK BROADS. 



In British Birds, Vol. XII., p. 47, I recorded an Osprey 

 {Pandion k. haliaetiis) at Scoulton Mere, Norfolk, on May 23rd, 

 1918. On May nth, 1919, after having just flushed a Bittern 

 from her nest of six eggs, five of which have since hatched 

 out, I saw an Osprey sailing over an adjacent Broad, when it 

 suddenly held itself up in its flight and made a stoop vertically 

 downwards. I could not see it take the fish, owing to some 

 intervening trees, and the bird was lost to sight for about ten 

 minutes, during which time I imagined it was devouring its 

 prey. It then rose again into the air and sailed round and 

 round, and as it came into the sun identification with glasses 

 was easy. This bird remained in the district for about a 

 week, and was several times seen by a marshman to catch fish 

 from the Broad. " S. H. Long. 



NIGHT-HERON IN ANGLESEY. 



An adult Night-Heron {Nycticorax n. nycticorax) was shot by 

 a farmer at Rhos Neigr, Anglesey, on May 31st, 1919. I 

 received the bird, sent for identification, on June 3rd, but 

 owing to its decomposed state could not ascertain the sex 

 nor the colour of the irides. Certain points of its colora- 

 tion seemed to me to differ from the descriptions I have 

 consulted. The crown, back and scapulars are usually 

 described as black with bottle-green reflections, but they 

 seemed to me to lie between Ridgway's " plumbeous " and 

 " blackish slate," with distinctly indigo sheen. The upper 

 mandible was blackish-slate ; the lower blackish at the tip, 

 reddish at the base. The lores and skin round the eye were 

 dark green. Allowing for a certain amount of deepening 

 of colour, it is difficult to reconcile this with the various 

 descriptions given, most of which were probably taken from 

 dry skins. These are : " dark slate-grey " (Seebohm) ; 

 ■" pale green " (Sharpe and Pycraft) ; " yellowish-green " 

 (Dresser) ; " lead-colour " (Saunders) ; " bluish-grey " 

 (Saunders in Yarrell). The legs and feet were ochre-yellow, 



