Tue ZooLocist—OcrToBER, 1875. 4663 
was I cannot conceive, because there is plenty of food, and the victim was 
a strong and healthy young rat, sufficiently old to be independent of its 
parents. When a boy nearly all my pocket-money was earned by rat- 
catching, my father allowing me one penny per head,—so I soon became 
expert at the trade, and well acquainted with the habits of the rat; but 
I never observed an incident similar to that above described, and am quite 
at a loss to account for it. Can any readers of the ‘ Zoologist’?—Richard 
M. Barrington; Fassaroe, Bray, County Wicklow, September 21, 1875. 
Migration of Waders.—On Saturday, the 29th of August, large flocks of 
gray plovers, godwits, sandpipers and redshanks passed over Ramsgate 
Harbour, passing at intervals of a few minutes. The shrill cry of these 
birds could be heard all night, beginning about 9 p.m. A few greenshanks 
also passed over, but I did not hear a single curlew. The birds appeared 
to be flying low, not more than from fifty to a hundred yards high, judging 
from the whizz of their wings. At first I thought that the presence of 
these birds was due to the mud-flats at Pegwell Bay being covered by the 
tide: on visiting the mud-flats at low-water next day very few waders were 
to be seen, and no birds were heard to cross the harbour on Sunday night. 
A correspondent of the ‘Times,’ writing from Tunbridge, states that he 
heard the birds, which he calls “ whistlers,” pass overhead about 8 P.M. 
Another correspondent from Folkestone writes that large flocks of sand- 
pipers passed over the town at intervals between 8 p.m. on Saturday and 
4 am. on Sunday, August 30th. The birds were also heard at Dover.— 
A, H. Smee; September 1, 1875. 
Hobby feeding on Bats.—At p. 4538 Mr. Sclater asks if the hobby has 
been known to feed on bats. If he will turn back to p. 4292 he will find 
that a hobby was killed in Norfolk which contained two bats.—J. H. 
Gurney, jun. ; Northrepps. 
Montagu’s Harrier breeding in Norfolk.—An old female of Montagu’s 
harrier and five young birds, which had apparently left the nest but a few 
days, were captured on the Upton Marshes near Acle, on the 30th of July 
last, and sent me for preservation.—T. HE. Gunn; August, 1875. 
Further Note on the Young of the Snowy Owl hatched in Confine- 
ment.—I am desirous of adding a few further particulars to my note on 
this subject in the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 4573). The youngest of the four 
owlets unfortunately died on the 14th of July, and having been left in the 
aviary for a short time after its death was discovered, its head was torn off 
(presumably by one of the parent birds), which spoiled it as a specimen. 
On the 15th of July the oldest of the three survivors began to change in 
colour, the white down assuming a dark lead-coloured tint, and by the 19th 
