9596 Birds, 



Richardson's, my birdstufFer, on the 38th of March, a most beautiful 

 male of this species with the full black "cravat" of the breeding 

 plumage: it had been shot on the same day by Mr, F. Boyes, of 

 Beverley, on Swine Moor. The day after, a female was shot by the 

 same gentleman on the same pasture, so that I concluded the two birds 

 had been a pair, which, had they escaped their untimely end, might 

 have remained to breed on the pasture where they were shot. 



Hen killing Mice. — Mr. J. H. Gurney (Zool. 9539) relates an 

 anecdote of a hen killing mice. I believe that many poultry fanciers 

 and breeders will bear me out when I say that it is not unusual for 

 some breeds of poultry to evince this predilection. Several years ago 

 I used to breed fancy poultry on a rather extensive scale, and I have 

 more than once seen birds of the Shanghae or Cochin China breed 

 both catch and swallow mice. I have never seen a fowl lie in ambush 

 with the deliberate object of surprising the mouse, but I have seen a 

 hen rush at, seize and devour a mouse as it ran across the poultry- 

 yard. 



W. W. BOULTON. 

 Beverley, April 6, 1865. 



Erratum. — In my " Ornithological Notes" (Zool. 9491), for Walton Abbey, 

 read Walton Abbey. 



OrnUhological Notes from Manchester. 

 By C. W. Devis, Esq. 



A FEW noticeable birds appeared in our markets during the earlier 

 part of March, but on the whole the month has not satisfied our 

 ornithological appetite. 



Great Northern Diver. — The great northern diver was represented 

 on the 4th of March, by a young female adult, in bone and plumage, 

 but with a virgin ovary : she is a fine bird, weighing 6 lbs. 12 oz., and 

 measuring 35 inches from beak to tail, and 44 inches in expanse of 

 wing. Can any explanation be offered of the fact that almost all these 

 stragglers are of this age and sex } Fish piled on fish in the bird's 

 gullet testified to its voracity. Within a length of 16 inches were, 

 first, a gurnard as large as an average herring, below this another of 

 like size, then another 6 inches long occupying the proventriculus and 

 part of the stomach, which was filled by the bones and debris of still 

 another similar fish undergoing comminution. Whatever the grebes 

 may do, their cousin-german the diver certainly does not eject its 



