The Zoologist— April, 1873, 3491 



since I saw seventy dozen dead in one house, a tolerable idea of the numbers 

 taken by the birdcatchers may be formed. Sky larks, which up to that 

 day were very scarce, came with the thrushes, but no fieldfares or redwings 

 were to be seen. Having offered a birdcatcher a good price each for all 

 the snow buntings he could get me alive, he has up to now secured me 

 upwards of thirty birds, which are doing well in my aviary, — rather more 

 than I hoped for, but a harvest he was too wise to leave ungathered, in the 

 face of a hard winter and dear coal. — C. S. Oregson; March 6, 1873. 



Hawfiuch and Branibling at Ringwood. — Considerable flocks of bram- 

 blings have visited this neighbourhood during February, and some I have 

 seen were in superb plumage. They congregated much with sparrows, green- 

 finches, yellowhammers, &c., amongst the stacks of the farmers' corn and 

 hay, and I fear that many of them were wantonly killed, as one man boasted 

 to a friend of mine that he had shot more than a score for his ferrets. I have 

 also seen several hawfinches, but they appeared to be exceedingly shy and 

 •wary. A few days ago a gai'dener brought a specimen he had killed whilst 

 in the act of pulling up some of his early peas. It is not a very rare bird 

 in this neighbourhood, and I have no doubt it sometimes nests in the New 

 Forest, although I have never met with the eggs or nest there, and do not 

 know of any one who has, but I once saw a pair of the old birds in the forest 

 in the summer, and on two occasions I have seen young or immature 

 specimens from the locality. Their usual food is, I believe, the seeds of the 

 hornbeam or garden fruits, and as the former is rare and the latter are not 

 frequent in the forest, the birds of necessity are compelled to seek a more 

 favourable spot for nidification and its requirements. — G. B. Corhin. 



Kingfisher and Hawk at Sea. — During a voyage, a few years ago, a king- 

 fisher took refuge in the rigging of the ship ' Chatham,' and was shot, the 

 vessel being then in the centre of the Gulf of Aden, seventy miles distant 

 from the nearest land. Shortly afterwards the carpenter at work on deck 

 was "taken aback" at seeing his favourite pigeon's head fall beside him. 

 Looking up, he saw a small hawk devouring the rest of its body in the 

 mizen top. In great wrath the man summoned the captain to take 

 vengeance on the murderer, and the hawk (believed to be a sparrowhawk) 

 was also shot, but unfortunately fell overboard. I do not know if the king- 

 fisher was our common English species or the little Indian kingfisher. 

 Both are included in Shelley's ' Birds of Egypt,' the former as " abundant," 

 the latter as "not so common." — Henry F. Bailey. 



little Bustard in Hants. — A female specimen of the little bustard was 

 shot on the 4th of January in a turuip-fieldon the farm of Mr. Twitchen, at 

 Whitchurch, near Andover, and has since been presented to the collection 

 at the British Museum, as recorded by Mr. R. B. Sharpe in the ' Field' of 

 January 18th. Mr. Twitchen has himself informed me of the correctness 

 of the date of this capture. — Henry Reeks ; East Woodhay. 



