NOTES. 165 



ADDITIONS TO THE SHROPSHIRE AVIFAUNA. 



A case of Falcons has just been presented to the Shrewsbury 

 Museum by Mrs. H. 0. Wilson, who states that all the 

 specimens in it were collected on or near the Longmynd, 

 between 1848 and 1857, when her late husband was rector of 

 Church Stretton. Besides examples of the commoner species, 

 the series includes all three of the British Harriers, a pair of 

 Kites, an adult Red-footed Falcon (F. vespertinus), Goshawk 

 (Astur palnmbarius) , and an immature Iceland Falcon (F. 

 islandus), This last had been recorded by Roche, and 

 was one of two examples obtained at Leebotwood, the other 

 being placed in the Hawkstone collection. The date was not 

 given by Roche, but I now learn that in the Rev. H. 0. Wilson's 

 diary there is an entry on 5th April, 1853, of a payment to 

 Millington (keeper) "for the Jer-Falcon"; so that the bird 

 was probably obtained just before that date. The Red-footed 

 Falcon has been obtained on three other occasions in Shrop- 

 shire, but the Goshawk never ; the species is, therefore, new 

 to the county fauna. 



H. E. Forrest. 



OSPREY IN SHROPSHIRE. 



During the latter half of May an Osprey took up its quarters 

 on Colemere, Ellesmere. It was seen there constantly by the 

 keeper up to June 10th, when an otter-hunt, which lasted the 

 greater part of the afternoon, disturbed it. That evening it 

 was seen to capture a fish in Ellesmere mere, and it returned 

 once afterwards to Colemere, but then disappeared. 



H. E. Forrest. 



THE FOOD OF THE COMMON EIDER. 

 On reading Mr. Robinson's note on this subject in the March 

 number of British Birds (Vol. II., pp. 344, 384), I was 

 reminded of a series of observations I made on the food of 

 the Eider Duck a good many years ago. Perhaps the facts 

 are of sufficient interest to be worth recording at this time. 



In February, 1885, a bird-stuffer in Edinburgh received from 

 a " sportsman," who was spending a holiday in Orkney, no 

 fewer than forty-two Eiders. Happening to call at the 

 taxidermist's the day the first lot arrived, I noticed that one 

 of the birds was much swollen about the throat. On 

 examination its gullet was found to be crammed with the 

 shells of small molluscs, chiefly the delicate blue-rayed limpet 



