4764 Tue ZooLocist—J ANUARY, 1876. 
for the west. Mr. Edwin Ward, of Wigmore Street, to whom I forwarded 
these birds for preservation, says that one of them is a fine mature male 
specimen ; the other a young female.—R. S. Hills. (* Ivield,’ December 4.) 
Black Stork at Lydd, in Kent.— You may be glad of a few corrections 
concerning the black stork shot at Lydd, in Kent, in May, 1856 (Zool. 5160 
and 8.8. 2648.) It was killed by Mr. Wellstead, at Fairfield Brae (not 
Fairfield Brae), and was stuffed by Mr. Jell (not Gell). It is in the 
collection of Mr. Clifton Simmons. It was originally bought for sixpence ; 
and afterwards I am told thirty pounds was offered and refused for it. For 
these particulars I am indebted to Mr. Jell, the excellent taxidermist.— 
J. A. Gurney, jun. 
Curious Capture of a Scoter Duck.—On the 26th of November, 1875, 
being a stormy day, a man was walking on the beach at Trimingham, 
Norfolk, about 9 a.M., and the tide being low he saw a female scoter feeding 
between two lumps of clay which had been uncovered by the fall of the tide. 
He crept up to it, and the lumps of clay apparently having prevented the 
duck from observing him, he caught it in his hand before it could take 
flight. The bird was apparently unwounded, but probably somewhat 
exhausted by stormy weather; its captor clipped one wing, and fed it on 
soaked bread. He brought it to me alive eight days after he caught it, when 
it appeared to be in good health, and he then gave me the above account of 
its capture—J. H. Gurney ; Northrepps, Norwich, December 4, 1875. 
Bartailed Godwit.—L shot one of these birds this afternoon on the mud- 
flats opposite Dittisham. It was by itself, and in good condition, so it is 
strange what it was doing in this country so long after the departure of its 
companions.— Gervase I". Mathew ; December 4, 1875. 
Avocet in Ireland.—I have the pleasure of recording the visit of a pair 
of that very rare visitant to Ireland, the avocet, to the Moy Estuary this 
winter. I first had the good fortune of meeting them on the 28th of 
October, when I was returuing from wigeon-shooting down the river; they 
were feeding in the shallow water on the sands, along with some green- 
shanks, and I at first took them for an albino variety of that bird, as the 
difference in size was not at first apparent in. the evening light until I got 
a closer view of them, which their tameness enabled me to obtain, as they 
permitted me to bring my punt within almost fifteen yards of where they 
were feeding: ‘They appeared to feed by passing the bill with a side move- 
nent through the water, apparently scraping or sweeping the bottom, with 
the conyexity of the bill; and the swinging movement of the body and neck 
from side to side, when feeding, looks so very odd and peculiar that it at 
once attracts the attention of the observer, even if the curiously marked 
black and white plumage did not do so. Next morning I again met them 
as they were resting at high water on the strand, under one of the fields 
here, but they shortly after left the strand, aud flew about two hundred 
