100 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vra. 



kept her plax3e sitting for quite ten minutes after the cock 

 had left. She then went to the nest and broke up the bird 

 and fed the young, and then went up the wood to await 

 the cock's retiurn and I tliink to watch the dead Lark at the 

 block that I first mentioned." 



Copsey adds the following note in a letter dated July 10th • 

 " I shall be pleased for you to mention my name because 

 some gamekeepers may in time read it. Should they ask any 

 question I shall be very pleased to inform them that the 

 Hawks reared their young on small birds. Not one head 

 of game, nor a game feather can be seen at any of the 

 trimming blocks in that wood, nor on the mounds [i.e. ant 

 hills] out on the Down you saw used by the Hawks last 

 year. Larks have been their principal diet." 



I may add that besides Larks, so far as I remember, we 

 recognised feathers of Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Mistle-Thrush, 

 Blackbird and Song-Tlirush. 



The reason I have ventured to ask you to insert the above 

 is that at any rate for this pair, it settles the question of 

 which bird dresses the food for th.e young. F. G. Penrose. 



[The above is an interesting confhmation of Mr. E. Selous's 

 statement (c/. ZooL, 1911, pp. 179, etc.) that the female, so 

 far as he olsserved, did not pluck the prey but that this was 

 presumably done by the cock. Mr. Selous states, however, 

 that the prey is usually delivered to the female in the near 

 neighbourhood of the nest and only very rarely does he 

 deposit it on the nest. — ^Eds.] 



NIGHT-HERON IN SHROPSHIRE. 



I RECORDED in British Birds, VI., p. 122, a Night-Heron 



{Nycticorax n. nycticorax) shot on the Severn below Slirewsbury 

 in May, 1912. On June 1st, 1914, Cartwright, the keeper, 

 who shot the bird in question, and who is a reliable observer, 

 well acquainted with waterfowl, saw another on the same 

 stretch of the river. He recognised it before it came into 

 view by its harsh note, and the bird passed quite close over 

 his head in its flight down stream, giving him an excellent 

 view, so that he was able to identify it beyond a doubt. 

 He could easily have shot it if he had wished to do so. 

 Besides these two birds only one prior example has been 

 recorded in Shropshire by Eyton in 1836, so it is somewhat 

 remarkable that all three occurrences were on the same 

 stretch of river within a mile or so. It is close to Uriconium, 

 the buried Roman city, now in course of excavation. 



H. E. Forrest. 



