R( pities. 7713 



tufted duck's nest had been found, and I canuot do better than quote the letter, which 

 is as follows : — " I will to-morrow send you, by carrier, an egg of the tufted duck, 

 whose nest we have at last found, with nine eggs iu it ; it is among sedges and willows, 

 made of sedges, and a slight lining of down. The male disappeared about a fortnight 

 ago, and left his mate to briisg up her family alone, as she did last year, when he was 

 never seen, and I hope she will succeed as well this season, and that we may look for 

 more of the family to breed with us another year.'' I had afterwards the satisfaction 

 of seeing the nest ; it was placed on a small island, near the middle of the pond. 

 Last year (1860) three made their appearance on the same piece of water — one male 

 and two females. I was at Wallington from the ]7ih to the 19th of May, and saw 

 them all three, but could not find the nest. This is not the first account given of the 

 tufted duck breeding in England. In the ' Zoologist ' for 1850 (Zoid. 2879) is a notice 

 of a brood in Yorkshire, and in the ' Zoologist' for 1854 there is also an account of 

 of the birds nesting at Osberton, in Nottinghamshire. My friend, Mr. Alfred Newton, 

 of Elveden, says in a letter which I had die pleasure of receiving from him, that " in 

 1851 my brother Edward and myself were staying with our cousin, Lord Galway, at 

 his place in Nottinghamshire, and the bailiff, a most intelligent man, told us of a pair 

 of tufted ducks which, for the last two or three years, had frequented the water there 

 (at Serlby), and hatched their young on an island." Thus, it appears, we have four 

 well-authenticated instances of the tufted duck breeding in England.— /oA« Hancock, 

 in ' Transactions of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club, vol. v. part 1, p. 40. 



The Cormorant out for a Tour.— I have this day been favoured with the sight of a 

 cormorant, which, strange to say, was shot at Ten Stanton, Huntingdonshire, by Mr. 

 Mosely. This denizen of the sea was resting upon one of the above gentleman's out- 

 buildings, and so odd a bird created, as might be expected, some little speculation and 

 wonder. It was silling in an upright position, and its entire contour presented something 

 particularly unusual to persons not versed in Ornithology, coupled with the situation 

 being distant from the sea some hundred miles. I have myself known of similar 

 instances of the cormorant being shot inland, but in every case during a tornado or in 

 the winter months. This specimen is a last year's bird. — S. P. Saville ; Dover House, 

 Cambridge. 



Occurrence of the Hawk's-bill Turtle (Testudo imbricata) at Banff. 



By Mr. Thomas Edward. 



I HAVE just had the very great pleasure of receiving, from the Right 

 Hon. the Earl of Fife, a magnificent specimen of the above reptile, 

 accompanied by the following note : — 



" Caught in a stake-net about three miles from Mount Duff, on Monday, July 

 29, 1861. — To Mr. Edward, Banff, with the Earl of Fife's compliments.— Duff 

 House, Tuesday, July 30, 1861." 



On inquiry I find that the place where it was taken is called 



Greenside, a spot not far from the promontory known as Gamiie 



Mhor, and is on the Earl's property. From this latter circumstance, 



I believe, and from the novelty of such a creature being taken there, 



VOL. XIX. 3 H 



