9592 Birds. 



within guushot of him. The gull continued a most determined attack, 

 from which the duck sought to escape by diving, until Owen fired and 

 killed the duck, which proved to be a very beautiful old female 

 widgeon. He brought the duck to me, and with the exception of 

 wounds produced by his own shot, there was no evidence of any pre- 

 viously sustained injury. The duck was in fine condition, and I have 

 no doubt was perfectly uninjured when attacked by the gull. Although 

 evidence abundantly proves the preference of the great blackbacked 

 gull for carrion, I have little doubt that when pressed by hunger or 

 tempted by opportunity, he will not reject a living prey. 



Gray Phalarope. — I inadvertently omitted from my last notes a 

 notice of the occurrence of this bird at Filey. On the 22nd of 

 February Mr. D. Brown, of Filey, sent me, in the flesh, a very fine 

 female specimen of the gray phalarope. It was in full winter plumage, 

 and had been shot on the coast of Filey a day or two before. 



Ring Ouzel nesting near Beierley. — The nesting lime of many of 

 our British birds is fast a))])roaching, and this reminds me of an 

 unusual circumstance that cauie under my own observation last year. 

 A nest of the ring ouzel was found in a bank, concealed by coarse 

 herbage, within five miles of Beverley, by Master John Hewitson, son 

 of Mr. H. Hewitson, of Beverley : he saw the parent bird, which, 

 flying from the nest, revealed its place of concealment. The nest con- 

 tained four eggs ; these he brought home, having unfortunately thrown 

 the nest away : I have one of them in my possession, and it is without 

 doubt the nest of the ring ouzel. Moreover, the boy is unusually 

 observant, and if I had not seen the egg, I should have easily recog- 

 nized the species from his lucid and simple description of the parent 

 bird. The locality of the nest is evidence in favour of its belonging 

 to the ring ouzel, although I may add that last year I saw no less than 

 than three blackbirds' nests built on the ground ; two were in banks, 

 concealed behind tufts of grass, and the other was on the level ground 

 near to a larch-tree root and partly concealed amongst the long grass : 

 in one of these instances I saw the female bird on the eggs and set 

 her ofi" the nest, and in another I saw the eggs. I never knew the 

 ring ouzel breed in this neighbourhood before ; indeed we look upon 

 it as of rare occurrence, seldom more than two or three specimens 

 being observed each year, and then usually late in the autumn or early 

 winter. I have not met with a specimen of the ring ouzel near 

 Beverley after the fieldfares have left our neighbourhood. 



Pairing and Nesting of our Cotnmon Birds. — During the first and 

 second weeks of March, in spite of tlie almost unparalelled severity of 



