240 BRITISH BIRDS. 



the ordinary as well as the three- syllable call-note all the 

 time. His movements reminded me of the domestic male 

 Pigeon paying court to his female. He kept raising his body 

 to an upright position, spreading out his feathers, especially 

 those of the tail, and spinning round on his perch, exactly as 

 does the Pigeon. During this exhibition the female remained 

 silent. Thereafter all three birds flew away." 



T. Thornton Mackeith. 



LITTLE OWL IN WARWICKSHIRE. 



In connection with the spread of the Little Owl [Athene 

 noctua) which formed the subject of an article in a recent 

 number of this Magazine [vide B. B., Vol. L, p. 335), it is 

 interesting to note that these birds have now reached 

 Warwickshire. Messrs. Spicer & Son, taxidermists, Bir- 

 mingham, now have in their possession a specimen w^hich was 

 killed at Sutton Coldfield quite recently, though I am un- 

 fortunately unable to give the exact date. 



A. G. Leigh. 



A REMARKABLE VARIETY OF THE RED-LEGGED 

 PARTRIDGE IN ESSEX. 



Through the generosity of Mr. Ruggles Brise, the British 

 Museum of Natural History has just acquired a very remark- 

 able variety of the Red-legged Partridge {Caccabis rufa) killed 

 at Braintree on October 20th. 



This bird, a male, has the crown, sides of the head and throat, 

 dull black. The upper part normal. The neck, breast and 

 flanks, however, are of a uniform rich dark brown, but show 

 faint traces of the characteristic barring of the flanks when 

 held in certain lights. On the breast is a white patch, recalHng 

 the horseshoe of the English Partridge. No similar variety 

 has, we believe, ever been recorded, though white specimens 

 have several times been met with. A bird " with a white 

 breast-band," according to Yarrell's " British Birds," was 

 obtained in the Haute Garonne in November, 1872, and 

 similar varieties, it is interesting to note, " were captured 

 at the same season in the years 1873 and 1874." 



W. P. Pycraft. 



GREY PHALAROPE IN CO. WEXFORD. 



On November 11th I was duck shooting with a friend on the 

 south side of Wexford Harbour and saw a bird which I 

 identified as a Grey Phalarope. We were by the side of a 

 " pill " (an inlet from the sea containing brackish water, 

 as it receives the drainage from the marshes) when a small 



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