THE ZooLoGist—JuNg, 1872. 3111 
their nests on these cliffs, but their eggs are always taken; the ravens this 
year laid five eggs, one of which I have secured for my collection. Many 
kestrels breed here as well. The hoopoe seems particularly partial to the 
Isle of Wight, four having been seen near Freshwater this spring.—.J. 
Whitaker, jun.; Rainworth Cottage, Notts. 
Arrival of Spring Birds.— April 20.—Redstart, at Ramsdale ; cuckoo, at 
Goodwood Park. 21.—Blackcap and whitethroat, at Ramsdale. 23.—Whin- 
chat, at Ventnor. 27.—Corn crake, at Salisbury. 29.—House martin, at 
Salisbury. May 3.—Turtle dove, in Bedfordshire. 5.—Swift and common 
sandpiper, at Rainworth, Notts. We have found a teal’s nest with four 
eggs in some heather near here.—Jd. 
Tengmalm’s Owl, Roughlegged and Common Buzzards and Dotterel 
in Shropshire.—It will, no doubt, interest many of the readers of the 
*Zoologist’ to learn that a very fair specimen of that rare owl, Noctua 
Tengmalmi, was killed on the 23rd of last March, at Ruyton-of-the-Eleven 
Towns, in this county, on the estate of Mr. Rowland Hunt, of Boreatton 
Park: it was obtained by a man shooting wood pigeons. The bird flew 
round the tree under which he was standing, and not knowing what it was 
he shot it. It has been preserved by Henry Shaw, of Shrewsbury, for 
Mr. Hunt. I examined the bird, which was a male, and found no traces of 
captivity about it. The primaries and tail-feathers were clean and perfect, 
but the breast-feathers on one side appear to have had the ends bitten off 
by the bird in a very singular manner. The plumage and markings were 
of an average character, but exhibited a dusky, or rather “smoky,” 
appearance, as if the bird had been living in holes of trees. I am not 
aware of any previous specimen having been killed in Shropshire. In the 
first week of December, 1871, a fine specimen of the roughlegged buzzard 
(Buteo lagopus) was killed in Withyford Wood. Like many a rare bird it 
was only just rescued in time from a boy, who was dangling it along to 
hang up and “ frighten the crows,” by a gentleman who met him and knew 
its value. The common buzzard (Buteo vulgaris), a bird for some years 
past nearly extinct in this county, has again reappeared in several instances. 
Ihave a fine male and female, probably birds of the year, trapped upon 
Stowe Hill, and I have heard of others being seen and destroyed. The 
dotterel, a very rare bird in these parts, has been obtained once in the last 
year at Lutwyche Hall—dJohn Rocke; Clungunford House, Shropshire, 
April 24, 1872. 
White’s Thrush Allow me to inquire of Mr. Sclater whether he has 
noticed the comparative length of the middle toe and tarsus of White’s 
thrush with that of the missel thrush—that in White’s thrush the middle 
toe is longer than the tarsus, and the reverse the case as regards the missel 
thrush. This measurement was taken some years ago from a specimen of 
White's thrush in the museum of the Zoological Society —Henry Robert 
Leach; Oak Hill, Hampstead, N.W., May 1, 1872. 
