36-24 The Zoologist — August, 1873. 



of ceaseless persecution. The night parrot is never spared ; the 

 skin or skeleton finds a ready market in the Natural History 

 exchange. 



T. H. Potts. 



Ohinitahi, New Zealand, March 10, 1873. 



Ornithological Notes from Somersetshire. 

 By Cecil Smith, Esq. 



For the first two months of the year I have nothing to say, 

 except that being at the Taunton railway-station one day (I think 

 the 25th of January), I saw that most omnivorous bird, the house 

 sparrow, devouring with the greatest gusto the grease in the pots 

 kept for greasing the wheels. I was rather struck by this, as so 

 many birds have an objection to grease of any sort. 



March, 1873. 



Razorbill. — On the lllh I had a razorbill sent me from Weston- 

 super-Mare, which had been picked up nearly dead on the rocks, 

 probably starved and driven ashore in one of the gales that were 

 prevalent about that lime : it was a small bird, apparently a young 

 bird of last year, still in winter plumage ; it had nothing what- 

 ever in its stomach. I have noticed this capture, as the razorbill 

 and the guillemot are not very common so high up the Bristol 

 Channel, the water being probably too muddy for them. 



Haujinch. — On the 25th I saw two hawfinches about my own 

 place, and Mr. Mathew shot one of a pair that made their appearance 

 in the Vicarage garden. 1 cannot, however, quite agree with my 

 friend's remark (Zool. S. S. 3490), that this bird "is nearly as great 

 a stranger in this part of the country as a waxwing," for it is an 

 almost constant winter visitant, though never very numerous, and 

 rather varying in numbers ; it also occasionally breeds in different 

 parts of the county. A young bird, only just out of the nest, was 

 picked up dead in the stable-yard of a friend's house, about three 

 miles off, and brought to me on the 2Glh of June, last year. 



Redstart. — On the 25lh I saw a male redstart; this is the 

 earliest I have ever seen: last year one was brought to me which 

 had been killed in a garden near here on the 3rd of April, which 

 I then thought unusually early. 



