3018 Tue ZooLocist—Apnrit, 1872. 
enough, and on my return home an old male ring ouzel was seen, a late 
straggler, taking his dinner off the red berries of a whitethorn—Murray 
A. Mathew ; Bishop’s Lydeard, March 19, 1872. 
Birds observed in Liverpool Market.—February 2. Immature redbreasted 
merganser in the market to-day, last year’s bird, from North Wales. 
February 8. Noticed a quantity of razorbills, and a few guillemots amongst 
them, in our market to-day; also some bernicle geese. It is curious how, 
general the mortality amongst the former birds seems to have been lately. 
February 10. A Sclavonian grebe in very good plumage hangs in the 
market to-day. February 17. Several redshanks, one greenshank, or bar- 
tailed godwit, and some oystercatchers in our market to-day. Some dunlins 
I shot this afternoon show very evident signs of their coming handsome 
summer plumage. All through the winter they have kept together in one 
enormous flock, and are now beginning to separate into smaller parties. 
February 19. Some tufted ducks and knots in the market to-day. Pochard, 
wigeon and scaup ducks have been very numerous in our market all the 
month, and teal and wild ducks have been plentiful till quite lately, but 
now scarcely one of the latter can be obtained—H. Durnford; 1, Stanley 
Road, Waterloo, Liverpool. 
Birds attacking Dragonflies—As a question has lately been raised as to 
whether birds ever attack dragonflies, I think the following paragraph, 
taken from Newman’s edition of Montagu, p. 27, may prove interesting :— 
«A few years since the Rey. Mr. Holdsworth, a very intelligent observer of 
Nature, who resides contiguous to a large piece of fresh water called Slapton - 
Ley, in South Devon, close to the sea, noticed a large species of hawk 
skimming over the water in pursuit of the larger dragonflies (Libellule), 
which it seized with its talons and took them from thence with its beak. 
This bird was observed to frequent the lake daily for a long time, for the 
purpose of preying on these insects’’—John Gatcombe. 
[The roughlegged buzzard, kestrel, and probably other hawks, feed on 
dragonflies.— E. Newman. | 
The Fourth Edition of “Yarrell.’—We have heard, as yet, little but 
praise, undoubtedly well deserved, of Professor Newton's new edition of this 
book. One change, however, in the nomenclature employed in the work, 
seems to me to require some slight explanation. I see with regret that the 
original terms “ Raptores” and “Insessores” have given way to “ Acci- 
pitres” and “ Passeres.” The excellence of Mr. Yarrell’s system has, 
except on certain minor points,—the positions to be accorded to the phala- 
ropes and the pratincole, to wit,—not been questioned ; indeed the simplicity 
of the arrangement, together with its precision, might almost incline us to 
imagine that the birds were made to fit the system, instead of the system to 
suit the birds. In the new edition the original generic and specific names 
have been retained, side by side with the new ones, and it seems almost a 
