140 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
was quite different from the straight neck of the Whooper. After a long 
wait the keeper returned with the wished-for guns, and a council of war 
having been held, he hid up ina sluice at the bottom of the pond while 
I made a wide détour, and with much careful stooping and stalking reached 
an ambush in the reeds which I had fixed on as my place for a good shot, 
and the woodman went round to the further side in order to drive the Swan 
tous. Eventually the pair of Polish Swans drove it towards my ambush, 
and I shot it. These two birds, though in perfect condition, only weighed 
nine pounds and three-quarters each, but were in splendid feather—pure 
white, with a tinge of rufous on the forehead. They measured five feet 
ten inches from tip to tip of wing, and the base of the bill when fresh was 
a lemon-yellow, but at a distance the whole appeared black. There was a 
sexual distinction in the beak, for they proved on dissection to be male and 
female, which is worth mentioning. In the female the yellow did not 
extend over the ridge of the upper mandible, which ridge was black, 
slightly mottled with yellow, the same part in the cock bird being entirely 
yellow. The gizzard of the latter contained small stones, “ silt,” pond-grass, 
water-insects’ legs, dnd the tail of a small fish, while that of his partner 
appeared to contain only pond-grass. Mr. Gunn tells me that about the 
same date a Bewick’s Swan was shot at Saxmundham, and sent him to be 
stuffed, and he heard on good authority of two more killed at Yarmouth.— 
J. H. Gurney, Jun. (Northrepps, Norwich). 
IMMIGRATION OF THE LoNG-EARED OwL.—Respecting the immigration of 
the Long-eared Owl (p. 106), it is perhaps worthy of mention that these birds 
have during this last winter appeared in very unusual numbers in Sussex. 
I saw a few days since at Pratt's and Swaysland’s, the birdstuffers in 
Brighton, a considerable number, each of those persons having received 
above a dozen specimens, of which the first was obtained on the 24th 
November, 1879, and the last a few days ago (March 4th). Nearly all of 
these were obtained amongst the furze on the South Downs, attracted, 
I suppose, by the mice. This bird, though generally diffused about the 
wooded portions of the county, is by no means abundant, and although it 
has been mentioned as an autumnal immigrant to the eastern counties, 
I have never heard till the last few months of so many having been 
observed in so short a space of time in Sussex.—Witi1AM Borrer 
(Cowfold, Sussex). 
Unusual ABUNDANCE OF THE GREEN WooDPECKER IN SOMERSET- 
suireE.—A ‘Taunton birdstuffer assured me that he has had upwards of 
fifty Green Woodpeckers brought to him for preservation since Christmas! 
This wholesale destruction of an inoffensive and beautiful bird is much to 
be regretted. Owing to the scarcity of the migratory Thrushes and most 
other small birds, the guns of holiday hedge-poppers have had to be levelled 
— so = ee 
