THE ZooLocist—NovEmBER, 1372). 3311 
in the ringtailed state. Montagu, that it is forty-two inches by ninety-six 
inches in breadth, and has the irides hazel. The ringtail, he says, is 
rather darker than the golden eagle (i.e. the adult), but Temminck tells 
us just the reverse, saying that “Les jeunes d’un et de deux ans, se 
distinguent facilement des vieux: tout le plumage d’un brun ferrugineux 
ou roussatre, assez clair et uniforme sur toutes les parties du corps,” and 
that the tail “est trés arrondie;” whereas Macgillivray says that the “ tail 
is nearly straight,”—a mistake, and a strange one, too, to be made by one 
of our best ornithologists, not excepting Montagu. I say nothing of others, 
as they are, for the most part, mere bookworms, compilers, or closet 
naturalists, and know no more of the habits of birds than did that most 
amusing and entertaining writer, Buffon. It is recorded in the various 
histories of the Isle of Wight—on what authority I never heard—that 
a golden eagle was wounded and captured at Appuldurcombe, two miles 
from this place, “ about the year 1828.” TI heard of one being seen on the 
wing at Shanklin, but it has been referred to in my ‘ Notes,”—Henry 
Hadfield ; High Cliff, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, October 23, 1872. 
Ring Ouzel in Devon.—I have to-day seen some ring ouzels, and fancy 
the date (October 22nd) somewhat late for them to be still lingering in 
England. As one of them flew from bush to bush it was chased sportively 
by a fieldfare, and it was singular to see the two birds together, as they 
seemed to be types respectively of summer and winter.— Murray A. Mathew ; 
Gidleigh Park, Chagford, Devon, October 22, 1872. 
Is the Wheatear commoner than usual this season?—I have more than 
once remarked to my friend the Rey. H. M. Wilkinson, that the above bird 
is usually very rare in the immediate vicinity of Ringwood, though when a 
school-boy I have taken its nest several times from rabbits’ burrows not 
many miles from here. This season, however, I have seen a number of 
the birds, both old and young, in the meadows and fields quite close to the 
town, and a friend, writing from Yorkshire last month, speaks of the 
abundance of this particular species there, from which I concluded they 
were commoner than usual. If such was the case it is pleasant to know 
that one at least of our “ summer visitors” has overlooked the inhospitable 
aspect and eharacter which I fear the past summer must have presented to 
many of the feathered tribes who pay usa “ flying visit.” In this neigh- 
bourhood the wheatear is called the “ white rump” generally, but many 
rustics know it only by the local name of “horse-match” or * horse- 
musher,” names in themselves as foolish as they are unmeaning.—G. B. 
Corbin ; Ringwood. 
- Breeding Habits of the Grasshopper Warbler.—On the 20th, 21st and 
22nd of June last a friend of mine found, in a field of Italian rye-grass, 
four nests of the grasshopper warbler, and as it is an occurrence not hitherto 
noticed in that locality, where not more than one of the above Species is 
