66 THE ZOOLOG!ST. 
Wuiru-FronteD Gooset 1x NorriaMpronsHirE.—I received on the 
LOth January a very fine adult specimen of the White-fronted Goose, Anser 
albifrons, from my friend Mr. G. E. Hunt, who shot it on the 6th of the 
same month, in one of my meadows on the River Nen near Aldwinkle, 
Northamptonshire. I see in a late number of ‘ The Field’ that two others 
of the above species are recorded by Mr. Tomalin as having been shot in 
our county—one near Northampton, and the other near Wellingborough, 
in the first week of January. Five and twenty years ago I should have 
hardly considered such occurrences worthy of record in ‘ The Zoologist,’ as 
the White fronted, though less common than the Bean and Pink-footed 
Goose, was by no means, at that period, an exceedingly rare bird; but now, 
instead of the hundreds of various species of wild geese which used to visit 
the valley of the Nen in the winter months, many seasons pass without my 
hearing of more than perhaps half a dozen passing over our district.— 
Liirorp (1, Grosvenor Square, W.). 
Scarcity oF GOLDEN PLovER 1n Sours or Scortanp.—I have just 
read with interest the remarks of Mr. Cordeaux (pp. 14, 15) upon the 
wonderfully large flock of Golden Plover which he saw in Lincolnshire at 
the commencement of the severe frost at the beginning of last December ; 
and I see that he further mentions having scarcely seen a single bird of this 
species previously during the autumn. Judging from my own observations 
in the South of Scotland this autumn aud winter, I can state that the move- 
ments of Golden and also of Green Plover have been very remarkable and 
have puzzled the sportsmen of Dumfriesshire, Ayr, and Galloway very con- 
siderably. In most years there are plenty of both these Plovers in certain 
likely haunts in all these counties; but on most of the properties on which I 
shot last autumn, there were scarcely any of these birds in places and at 
times where, during ordinary years, there were quantities. This was equally 
the case upon the sea-shores of the south-west of Scotland, as in the 
marshy grounds bordering the rivers, and upon the lower-lying moors, 
where often we see large “stands” of Plover in September and October. 
Shooting in Dumfriesshire from November 20th to December 15th last, on 
a large estate of some twenty miles in length and as many in breadth, 
where during hard frost the Golden Plovers in other years were almost 
countless, I only met with one flock during the above time, and only 
saw these on one day,and I may add that the frost was not very much 
harder than in previous years. Many friends, who have shot for years in 
the counties I have mentioned, told me that it was observable what a great 
decrease, or rather an almost fatal scarcity, of Golden Plovers had taken 
place this winter, and this was especially the case in their most favourite 
haunts. I hear of a similar noticeable scarcity of these birds from various 
parts of the North of Scotlind, and also from the northern coast of Ireland. 
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