OCCASIONAL NOTES. 105 
them to this Museum. Another immature specimen has also been shot 
within the last few days at Turf, on the Exe. ‘This species has occurred 
three times previously on the same river, once at Teignmouth, twice in 
Torbay, and twice at Plymouth. A Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cris- 
tatus) in winter plumage was shot at Powderham, on the Exe, on the 15th 
January, by Mr. A. K. Hamilton, who has presented it to this Museum; 
it is not common on the Exe, but has been obtained in various stages of 
plumage, principally in the early months of the year. On the 18th 
December last a young male Long-tailed Duck (Harelda glacialis) was 
brought to me in the flesh ; it had been killed on the Exe. We have now 
a fine series in this Museum killed on this river: an adult male in summer 
plumage (1847), an adult male in winter plumage, a young male (1851), 
another young bird (1865). A small flock of these ducks was seen on the 
Exe in November, 1867.—W. 8. M. D’Unpan (Albert Memorial Museum, 
Exeter). 
Rooxs Arrackine Acorns.—Your remarks on Rooks attacking acorns 
(page 21) reminds me of what came under my observation some twenty 
years since, when residing in Morayshire. I made some notes on the 
subject at the time, and now give an extract, thinking it will go far to prove 
that the Rooks you saw carrying off acorns were doing so to get at the 
grubs. The past autumn having been unusually mild, the thermometer 
in November frequently as high as 55°, grubs and worms were unusually 
abundant, consequently Rooks could uot have been pressed by hunger to 
feed on acorns. Seeing that the Nuthatch breaks the hazel-nut, we need 
not wonder at the Rooks breaking the shell of the walnut. The note to 
which I refer is as follows :—‘‘ November, 1858. Observing a number of 
Rooks flying in and out of a fir plantation, and remarking that they were 
more than usually clamorous, I was induced to watch them; I then found 
that on emerging from the wood they held in the beak something of con- 
siderable size, but what it might be I could not imagine. Snails were 
thought of, but it being late in November they were hybernating, so I 
endeavoured by a closer inspection to ascertain what could have been found 
of an eatable kind in the fir-trees, but the closely-matted branches effectually 
screened them. On leaving the wood they were observed to alight on an 
open space dotted with furze, under cover of which I was enabled to watch 
them unobserved; I then saw that what they were pecking and tearing at 
were fir-cones; the operation over—and it took but a few minutes—they 
returned to the trees for a fresh supply. On examining several of the cones 
strewn over the ground in different stages of decay, a grub, or maggot, was 
found in some of them near the core, showing clearly on what the Rooks 
had been feeding."—Hrnry Haprierp (Ventnor). 
Rooxs Arracxine Acorns.—Like Mr. R. M. Barrington I had never 
noticed that acorns were not included by the authorities on British Birds 
P 
