QCCASIONAL NOTES. . 133 
nest, and traps were laid for the parents; in a few days afterwards the 
female was taken and sent to one of our birdstuffers, where I saw it in the 
flesh shortly after its arrival; the upper part of the breast was a light 
yellowish red, the lower whitish with dark pear-shaped spots, more dis- 
tinctly marked than I have previously noticed in specimens in collections ; 
the stomach was full of wasps’ comb. Although I have seen and examined 
numbers of the Common Buzzard during the past ten years, this is the 
first example of the Honey Buzzard which I have known taken here.— 
J. B. Pintey (2, High Town, Hereford). 
Warre’s Turush in BerwicksHtry.—During the last week of Sep- 
tember, 1878, a Thrush, supposed to be of this species, was shot by 
Mr. Forbes Burn at Hardacres, in Berwickshire. Not being aware of 
its rarity, only a portion of the bird was saved—the head and wings 
unskinned, with part of the skin of the breast and back—and forwarded to 
Mr. Brotherston, taxidermist, of Kelso, to be converted into an ornament 
for a lady’s hat. Fortunately Mr. Brotherston took steps to try and 
secure what was left of it for the Kelso Museum, to which institution the 
owner kindly presented it. Mr. Brotherston, communicating the circum- 
stance in a note which was published in ‘ Land and Water ’ on the first 
of the present month of February, remarked that the relative length of the 
primaries differ from the measurements given by Yarrell in his description 
of the specimen in Lord Malmsbury's collection. He writes—‘ Length 
of wing from carpal joint, 6% inches ; first feather very short, 1} inch ; 
the second in the left wing is } inch, and in the right about ¢ inch shorter 
than the fourth. The second and fourth in Lord Malmsbury’s specimen 
were equal. The third is the longest in the wing, being about § inch_ 
longer than the fourth Length of bill from gape one inch four lines. 
The marking en the head is also different. Yarrell says ‘ the feathers on 
the upper part of the head and neck, yellow-brown tipped with black.’ In 
this specimen these feathers are black (becoming lighter on the basal half 
as they go backwards), with a yellow-brown spot about one-sixteenth of an 
inch from the tip. In other respects it agrees with his description, so far 
as can be seen.” These variations suggest the idea that the bird in 
question may not be White's Thrush after all, but possibly an allied species 
of the genus. (See Prof. Newton's edition of Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’ 
vol. i., p. 255, where the distinguishing characters are pointed out.) It 
would be desirable, therefore, to compare the specimen in question carefully 
with examples of the other allied forms referred to, with a view to place its 
identity beyond doubt. Mr. Brotherston has since written to me to say 
that another bird of the kind was seen on January 19th by Mr. A. Steel, a 
gentleman well acquainted with all our common birds and many of the rarer 
ones. It was feeding on a bare sandy spot under some large willows near 
