32 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Lirtte Own In SoMERSETSHIRE.—A Little Owl was killed here in 
March, 1878, by a young man whose attention was directed to it by a 
number of small birds fluttering round the tree in which it was perched. 
The skin is now in my possession. It is a bad specimen, as the bird 
was, unfortunately, allowed to remain unskinned for a week after death.— 
G. W. BratKxEenripGE (Clevedon, Somerset). 
Honey BuzzarD IN THE [sLE oF WicuHtT.—Mr. F. Smith, taxidermist, 
of Newport, informs me that a handsome bird of this species, in perfect 
plumage, was shot on the 7th October by Mr. H. Jacobs, of Sandown, while 
in the act of robbing a wasps’ nest. It had torn out the comb, and was 
preying on the larvee, some of which were found in the gullet on dissection. 
This is, so far as I know, the first instance of its capture in the island, nor 
have I heard of its being even seen, though the Rey. C. Bury, who some 
years since published a list of the birds of the island, says that a Buzzard 
seen by some one (no ornithologist) ‘‘ was probably the Honey Buzzard.”— 
Henry Haprirexp (High Cliff, Ventnor). 
[Mr. A. G. More, in his “ List of Birds” appended to Venables’ ‘ Guide 
to the Isle of Wight,’ observes (p. 428), ‘the Honey and Rough-legged 
Buzzards have each been once killed in the island.”—Ep.] 
Cote Ti? NESTING ON THE GRouND.— Mr. Butterfield refers (Zool. 
1878, p. 351) to a Cole Tit’s nest in a hole in a bank as being in an 
“abnormal situation.” I am inclined to think it is not an uncommon 
occurrence for this species to build in the ground, for I once found no less 
than three nests in an exactly similar situation in Scotland, viz. in a steep 
slope covered with pine trees; a wall of loose stones on the top of the slope 
containing a fourth nest. Several authors, among others Selby, Yarrell, Bech- 
stein, Sharpe and Dresser, mention holes in the ground as being oceasionally 
selected by the Cole Tit for nesting purposes. In the spring of the past 
year I found a nest of the Marsh Tit in the ground at the root of a tree in 
the New Forest. In this case trees full of holes abounded on every side.— 
J. Youna (5, Denbigh Road, W.). 
Birds 1x Hype Parx.—On March 26th last I noticed a Pied Wagtail, 
Motacilla Yarrellii, very busy after insects on the banks at the eastern end 
of the Serpentine. On April 5th, a female Wheatear was on the parade- 
ground opposite the Barracks; it appeared fatigued, having perhaps only 
just arrived. On June 16th I put up a Sky Lark near the Deputy Ranger’s 
Lodge. On July 4th I saw the Cuckoo three times in the trees opposite 
Grosvenor Gate.—Epwarp Hamurron (Portugal Street, Grosvenor Square). 
KINGFISHER FEEDING oN Newrs.—At a small pond near here, a few 
weeks since, a gentleman killed one of these birds with a newt in its mouth. 
There are no fish in the pond or within three-quarters of a mile of it. Two 
other birds, he tells me, frequent the same pond, or large puddle, for whose 
lives I have interceded.—H. G. Tomiinson (Burton-on-Trent). 
