2912 TuE ZooLoGist—JANUARY, 1872. 
cause of death was starvation, as it was very thin, and the stomach con- 
tained nothing but a little dark fluid, and when I skinned it I found no 
sign of any wound. The redbreasted merganser was killed in the canal 
some time the last week in November. It was in the “dun diver” 
plumage.—Cecil Smith ; December 5, 1871. 
Snowy Owl at Southrepps, in Norfolk.—The snow and sharp weather 
which set in last week brought over a noble snowy owl, which fell to the gun of 
Mr. Painter, a farmer at Southrepps. It was shot not more than two miles 
and a half from this house, as it sat in dignified solitude in a turnip field, 
on Sir Fowell Buxton’s land. It had been seen flying about in the morning 
by some labourers, and particularly by an invalid person confined to his 
room, who saw it as he Jay on the sofa, out of his window, and took it for a 
wild goose. It was shot on Monday morning, December 4th, and carried 
up to North Walsham on Thursday, where, it being market day, it created 
quite a sensation among the farmers, and left at the shop of Mr. Spinks, 
hairdresser, to be stuffed. I saw it a few hours after, before the eyes had 
been removed, and noted how strong the nictitating membrane was. I was 
also in time to dissect the body, which contained a great rat’s head, and was 
that of a female. I wish I could add that I had obtained its skin, but its 
owner has not yet decided to part with it. From the numerous broad 
bands of deep black on a fresh white ground I judge it to be immature. It is 
twenty-one years since one has been shot in Norfolk, yet so favoured has 
been this neighbourhood that five specimens are now recorded to have 
occurred within a radius of a few miles (see Stevenson, ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ 
i. p. 59). Montagu says in the Appendix to his Supplement that 
Mr. Bullock received a specimen from Norwich, about 1811, “ with an 
assurance of its having been killed in that neighbourhood,” which would be 
earlier than any mentioned by Mr. Stevenson, and much earlier than the 
Northumberland specimens in 1823, erroneously believed by Selby (B. B. i. 
p- 97.) to have been the first seen in England. A MS. note of Donovan’s, 
however, in Dr. Tristram’s copy of the Dictionary, upsets its authenticity : it 
runs as follows :—‘‘Mr. Bullock has told me another story about this owl, and, 
very unfortunately, in his own handwriting."—J. H. Gurney, Jun. ; 
Northrepps, Norwich, December 12, 1871. 
White’s Thrush.—It is a curious coincidence that two specimens of this 
rare thrush have been this year (1871) recorded in the ‘ Zoologist’ as 
occuring on succeeding days; the first seen’ in Kent by Lord Clifton on 
5th January; the other killed on the 6th January, at Langsford, in 
Somersetshire, as noted by Mr. Cecil Smith, and I take the liberty of 
calling attention to this interesting approximation of dates—J. H. Gurney; 
November, 1871. 
[A correspondent for whose judgment I have the highest respect dis- 
credits the statements about the occurrences of White’s thrush: he says 
