OCCASIONAL NOTES. 181 
1865, on Osmoor, a large tract of low-lying land some nine miles N.E. of 
Oxford, by F. Gorum, who is well known in the vicinity of Oxford as a 
good shot. From him it passed to its present possessor, who preserved it. 
The Stork was at first mistaken for a Heron.—C. M. Prior (Bedford). 
Witp-row. 1x BeprorpsHIRE.—Wild Duck, Snipe, Golden Plover, and 
Lapwing, have been unusually plentiful in this county this winter. The 
last two species might be counted by thousands, and I saw over fifty ducks 
reposing on the floods near to the road. There were also occasionally a few 
gulls. Wherever a green patch appeared above the floods it was literally 
crowded with Plover: I repeatedly saw a Sparrowhawk, evidently a male 
from his small size, dash at them, but from their habit of rising from the 
ground and meeting him, I could not perceive that he was successful. 
Owing to the extensive floods very few of these birds have been shot.—Ib. 
VaRIETIES OF THE Sky Larx.—With the exception of the House 
Sparrow I think the Sky Lark is more subject te abnormal variation of 
plumage than any other British bird. The commonest phase is buff, but 
I once bought a singular slate-coloured one in Leadenhall Market. Another 
curious Sky Lark in my collection was netted near Stockton-on-Tees by a 
birdeatcher, and it appears to me that at the time it was caught it was 
pied, and that a diet of hemp-seed afterwards has, in addition, operated on 
its plumage, and turned the portions which were brown, black, so that now 
it is black and white—a much greater anomaly than a brown and white one 
would be. At one time I considered this a unique specimen, but I believe 
others have occurred, and one similar one is described by Mr. Hele, as a 
great curiosity, at p. 95 of his ‘ Notes about Aldeburgh. —J. H. Gurney, 
Jun. (Northrepps Hall, Norwich). 
WoopcockS FREQUENTING THE SEA-sHORE.—Mr. Roberts, of Scar- 
borough, tells me that in the winter of 1863-4 Woodcocks frequented the 
harbour to dig for worms in the mud. As some of the birds were shot 
‘there was no mistake about the species.—In, 
Winter VIsiITaNts TO THE IstE or WieHtT.— Mr. Smith, the Newport 
naturalist, informs me that he has lately received the following birds for 
preservation :—A Common Buzzard, shot in the parish of Shalfleet, on the 
23rd December; an adult female, measuring twenty inches in length, and 
fifty in extent of wings. The stomach contained a vast number of earth- 
worms, also a quantity of grass. I am reminded by Mr. Smith that a 
Common Buzzard was procured at the same date in 1873. <A Spotted 
Crake was shot at Arreton. ‘Two Gray Phalaropes were shot in 
December, one on the 4th, the other on the 23rd. This is a somewhat late 
date at which to find this migrant; in former years they have been 
generally met with early in the autumn. ‘The Gray Phalarope is either 
more abundant than of yore, or our naturalists more observant, hardly a 
year passing without some appearing on our shores and inland pools. . It 
