The Zoologist — March, 1866. 131 



stacks, on the look-out for mice. They can, however, fly with ease, 

 even on the brightest day. One I put up from the stubbles, having 

 been set upon by some blackheaded gulls, rose by a series of spirals 

 to a great height, where for a long time I observed it flying round and 

 round in circles, its wings apparently motionless, like a kite ; the sun 

 was shining brightly at the time, but the owl was evidently perfectly at 

 home in the sunlight. 



Pied IVaglail. — Probably owing to the extreme mildness of the 

 season, pied wagtails have been move than usually numerous. I am 

 constantly seeing them following the ploughs, and about the sheep- 

 folds on the turnip-lands. 



Scarcity of Wild Fowl in North Lincolnshire. — I never remember 

 the Humber flats so destitute of birds as they have been this winter. 

 As yet I have seen only one small flock of widgeons, and frequently 

 in ray walks along the embankment, with the exception of a few 

 gulls and hooded crows, I have not seen a single bird. Snipes have 

 been few and far between. Jack snipes I have found nearly as plen- 

 tiful as usual. 



Green Woodpecker. — I am sorry to say these beautiful birds are 

 becoming very scarce. As a boy I can remember frequently seeing 

 them in the woodlands in the neighbourhood of Louth, in this 

 county. I heard the other day the cry of this bird in a small 

 plantation in a neighbouring parish ; previously to this I have 

 not recognized its well-known laughing call in this neighbourhood for 

 ten years. 



Starling. — I have noticed some extremely large flocks of these 

 birds in the marshes during the last few weeks : many thousands 

 together in one flock feeding on the grass lands, and all busily 

 employed in picking up something they found on the land. I shot 

 two of these birds the other evening out of a large flock passing over. 

 On opening them I found their stomachs literally crammed with a 

 small gray grub, which I am not entomologist enough to distinguish. 

 They were about half an inch in length, dark gray, with red or bright 

 brown heads, about the thickness of a pin, and very tough. Are they 

 young "wire-worms"? I have previously noticed in the 'Zoologist' 

 (Zool. 9802), in connection with blackheaded gulls, the myriads of 

 crane-flies which visited the marsh district in the autumn. If two 

 birds had in one day devoured so many grubs, what must be the 

 amount destroyed by one flock of these birds alone in a single day, 

 and then for weeks together ? 



