220 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
the Green Woodpecker. Possibly this may be the bird referred to in the 
list in question. As the author expressly states that he omits “such birds 
as are common,” it is doubtful whether he would intend to include the Jay. 
With regard to the “ Ptarmigan,” there must be some mistake, for it is 
impossible to suppose that this rock-loving species, this bird of the mist 
and mountain, was ever met with in haunts so uncongenial to its habits 
as the flats and fens of Lincolnshire. The word “ Sarcelle,” as every 
naturalist knows, is the French name for our familiar little Teal; and yet 
if this be the bird referred to by the writer of ‘ Notitia Luda,’ it is strange 
that he should have called it ‘“ rare” in Lincolnshire, where, at the date at 
which he wrote, it must have been one of the commonest of all waterfowl, 
being annually taken in decoys by hundreds, not to say thousands. Should 
the author be still living, and read these lines, he would confer a favour by 
affording some explanation.—J. E. Harrine. 
Manx SHEARWATER IN OXFORDSHIRE AND NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. — 
I recorded, at p. 135, the fact of some Manx Shearwaters having been 
captured alive in Oxfordshire. I am now able to add two more to the list. 
Mr. H. Norris, of Swalcliffe Park, near Banbury, writes me :—* As to the 
Manx Shearwater in my possession, I beg to say it was caught by some 
workmen returning home one evening in September, 1877, by the brook-side 
at Framington, near here. I sent it to Spicer at Leamington to be stuffed, 
aud he informed me that it was an adult bird. I tried for two days, with 
fish and raw meat, to keep it alive, but it would eat nothing. I then turned 
it into the garden, hoping it might, like the Plovers, take to worms and slugs. 
There is a finer specimen than mine at a tenant’s house near Chacombe, in 
Northamptonshire, which was caught near there.”—C. MatrHew Prior 
(Bedford). 
THe BrackeaP IN ScornanD In WintER.—At a recent meeting of the 
Natural History Society of Glasgow, the Secretary read the following note 
on the occurrence of the Blackcap Warbler, Sylvia atricapilla, in Scotland 
during winter, by Mr. Robert Gray, F.R.S.E., hon. member :—* In 1862, 
Mr. Osborne recorded, in the ‘ Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of 
Edinburgh,’ that he had shot two specimens of this warbler in Caithness in 
the month of October. The announcement gave rise at the time to an 
expression of considerable doubt on the part of one of the London critics, 
who indeed did not hesitate to say that Mr. Osborne had made a mistake. 
Not long afterwards, however, other specimens having been met with even 
later in the season and in the same county, his suspicions were allayed by 
the production of the birds themselves, and the fact was thereafter made 
known, through one of the London magazines, that Blackcap Warblers 
could not only survive the rigours of our Scottish climate in Caithness, but 
that they could keep themselves in good condition by feeding entirely upon 
