508 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
attacks till he flew far away. The Common Gull was noted, and 
the Herring Gull was very common in August, frequenting all the 
fresh-water lochs in this neighbourhood. Large numbers of the 
Great Black-backed Gull were seen on Loch Morar and other 
lochs. On one occasion whilst stalking in the forest we suddenly 
came upon a small fresh-water loch, from which at least a hundred 
Black-backed Gulls rose from the rocks and water. They do not 
come down to the shore till the beginning or middle of September. 
I once saw a Skua, which I think must have been Richardson’s, 
on Loch-na-Nuagh, but am not quite certain of the species. 
Later -in the year these waters are frequented by all kinds 
of wildfowl, and I have no doubt many more species could be 
added to this list. 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
Tur Porecat 1n Norta Oxrorpsuire.—I have lately procured a 
fine specimen of the Polecat, which was trapped at Souldern, in this 
county, in May, 1876. It is now very rare in this immediate neighbourhood. 
The only other instances to my knowledge of its occurrence within the last 
few years are as follows:—One shot in an osier-bed on the Swere about 
seven years ago; one seen by myself in the summer of 1871 or 1872 on 
the banks of the Sorbrook; another near the same place the winter before 
last, seen by a shepherd carrying off a rabbit (but this may possibly have 
been a domestic cat); and, lastly, one which, as I am informed on good 
authority, frequents the parish at the present time.—O. V. Apuin (Bodicote, 
near Banbury). 
Bartram’s SanpPrpeR IN Lincotnsuirr.— On the 27th October, 
Mr. John Cooper, the well-known taxidermist of Radnor Street, St. Luke’s, 
brought for my inspection a freshly-killed specimen of Bartram’s Sandpiper, 
Actiturus Bartramius, in the flesh, which he had just purchased in Leadenhall 
Market. It was hanging up with a lot of Golden Plovers, with which it had 
been sent up from Lincolnshire. Enquiries subsequently made at my request 
failed to elicit the name of the locality whence it was obtained, there being 
apparently some mistaken impression on the part of the salesman as to the. 
motive of the enquiry. In answer to my question whether he had examined 
any of the Golden Plovers, and particularly whether he had noticed the colour 
of the axillary plumes (which in the American Golden Plover are grey), 
Mr. Cooper replied that he had not. This is to be regretted, for I have 
often seen a single Sandpiper or Plover flying in company with a flock of a 
different species; and it is not unlikely that the Golden Plovers in question 
