178 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
termed “ fancy birds,” while some which are most useful to the agriculturist 
have no protection, and are in consequence in great danger of extermina- 
tion. There are no two more deserving members of the rural police than 
the White and Brown Owls: the foolish fashion of exhibiting the masks 
and wings of these birds in the form of hand-screens is leading to their 
constant persecution and slaughter, and in some parts of the country they 
are fast becoming scarce. A birdstuffer in Taunton informed me that on 
an average he mounted fifty Barn Owls and forty Brown Owls a year, and, 
as I have sometimes seen half-a-dozen fresh victims brought into him at 
once, I can well believe that these figures are not over-stated. There is 
another birdstuffer in the town who seems to do an equally large trade in 
mounting unfortunate owls. So keenly are they looked after that when a 
short time since a White Owl was so ill-advised as to show himself in the 
Priory Meadows five gunners watched patiently for him evening after 
evening until one succeeded in bringing him down. ‘The natural result is 
an inconvenient increase of small vermin. One of the villagers here told 
me that last spring he trapped more than sixty field mice by one row of 
peas in his allotment, and that unless he had been thus vigilant in destroying 
these small depredators his crop would have been quite lost. Years ago he 
stated it would have been unusual to have trapped more than two or three. 
Surely it is time that something was done in the interest of poor gardeners, 
to protect their best friends, the owls, from senseless slaughter.— Murray 
A. Maruew (The Vicarage, Bishop's Lydeard). 
PureLe GALLINULE IN SomersETsHIRE.—The following are the par- 
ticulars of the capture of a bird of this species, as sent me by Mr. 
Filleul, of Biddisham:—“ A Purple Gallinule was caught in a ditch 
at Tarnock, in Badgworth parish, on August 25th, 1875. It is now in 
the possession of a farmer of the name of James Burrows, whose lads 
caught it. It was caught alive, and kept for a few days in a hamper. 
It died of starvation, I suppose, and was then stuffed. I have seen it 
twice; it is a very handsome bird, shaped like a Coot, but the legs are 
longer.” I understand that another was seen at the same time.—Ib. 
Srneutar Acecrpenr To a KinerisHer.—While Snipe-shooting one 
winter round Hickling Broad, in Norfolk, I noticed some small object 
splashing in the water at the side of a dyke, and on proceeding to the spot 
I discovered an unfortunate Kingfisher, which had come to grief in a very 
singular manner. The bird had evidently at some former time been struck 
by a shot which had passed through the upper mandible. This wound was 
quite healed up, but a small piece of the horny substance of the beak had 
been splintered, and into the crack produced by the fracture two or three of 
the fine fibres which form part of the flowers or seeds of the reed were so 
firmly fixed that the bird was held fast. It must have been flying up the 
dyke, and, brushing too closely to the reeds that grew on the banks, got 
