The Zoologist — January, 1866. .31 



about a mile from here, sporting with a flock of starlings (redwings ?), and on my 

 return, the day after, he named this to me, and suggested jerfnlcons. I was iucreiJu- 

 lous, and said sparrowliawks or kestrels, but his belief was firm ; and my incredulity 

 was much shaken some ten days after, on reading a paragraph in the ' Manchester 

 Courier,' which stated that a fine jerfilcon was shot a few days aj;o on a farm near 

 Biddulph, Cheshire (eighteen miles from here}. I have, thert-fiire, fjreat reason for 

 believing that my friend had the good fortune to see a couple of those rare and 

 beautiful birds. — Hugh Harrison. 



Merlin at Erdington. — On the 11th of November a fine merlin (Falco cesalon) was 

 taken alive at Erdington, in the net of a bird-catcher. — 5. Jephcotl,jun.; Butlsall 

 Heulh, Birmiugham. 



Curious Capture of a Kestrel by a Cat. — A curious fact occurred here last week. A 

 cat belonging to a neighbour was lying concealed in a drain in a meadow, watching 

 her opportunity to seize a field mouse, when a kestrel swooped upon a mouse so close 

 to her that with a sudden spring she caught the bird, and eventually killed it, a termi- 

 nation to her hunt as unlooked for by her as it was unexpected by the kestrel, who had 

 probably been so intent upon the moving mouse as to overlook the motionless cat. 

 This was related to me by the owner of the cat, who look the bird from her a few 

 minutes after the event. — J. Edmund Hurling ; Kingsbury, Middlesex, November, 

 1865. 



Rouglilegged Buzzard in South Yorkshire. — From the ' Doncasler Gazette' of the 

 10th of November I quote the following: — " A splendid female specimen of the rough- 

 legged buzzard (Buleo lagopus) was shot a few days ago by Mr. W. M. Darley, of 

 Thorne, at Woagill, near Middlesmore. It measured 4 feet 2 inches in the ex|)ansion 

 of the wings, and 2 feel 1 inch from the beak to the tip of the tail." — H. Ecroyd 

 Smith ; Aldbro' House, Ejremonl, Birkenhead. 



Great Gray Shrike ttfur Rochdale. — I have recently seen a very fine and perfect 

 specimen of the great gray shrike, in the hands of Mr. Harrop, the taxidermist, Man- 

 chester, shot near Rochdale last month, and it is now in the collection of my friend 

 Mr. Richard Gorlon. — Hugh Harrison. 



Third Occurrence of the Redbreasted Flycatcher in Cornwall. — I have much 

 pleasure in recording, in the ' Zoologist,' a third example of this little flycatcher, which 

 was obtained this week from the Scilly Isles, after having been carefully observed and 

 its predatory habits watched by Mr. Augustus Pechell and the Rev. John Jenkinson, 

 who were on a visit to their friend the Lord Proprieter of the Isles. The specimen is 

 very much like the first specimen which was obtained, and which I have in my 

 museum, with the exception that the secondaries and wing-coverts are rather more 

 deeply bordered with rufous, which I think indicates a bird of the year, as I observe in 

 specimens of the adult birds the upper plumage is quile plain. The present specimen 

 was observed in a tree, flitting about and darting after flies, much in the same way as 

 our common species, returning to the same branch after each capture. The gizzard, on 

 dissection, contained a mass of little black flies. I regret I cannot pronounce on the sex 

 of the bird, as the mutilation from shot prevented the discovery. It appears now probable 

 that the accidental occurrence of this little warbler is inclined to give way to denizen- 

 ship, and I cannot help thinking that the species breeds in our islands. The bird 

 nttered a note much louder than the suppressed "cheei" of the spotted flycatcher, 

 and resembled the "chat" of the Saxicolse ; its supposed alliance to this genus is 



