THE ZooLocist—Makcu, 1876. 4815 
margins of the cattle-pits iu many of our fields, and Mr. Cecil 
Smith believes it formerly bred with us. The one seen to-day is 
the first I have come across in a six years’ residence in this 
parish. 
22nd. Observed the occurrence of a great bustard on the Sussex 
Downs, recorded in the ‘Field’ for this date. Surely there must 
be some mistake about the weight, which is put down at eight 
pounds, and the bird is described as an unusually fine example 
and in its second year. A young bustard would scale nearer six- 
teen than eight pounds: the old males weigh as much as twenty- 
five or even thirty pounds. The birdstuffer in Taunton showed 
me a fine old male goosander to-day which had been shot in the 
moors near the town. 
29th. A fine mallard smew, in very perfect plumage, was in the 
hands of the Taunton stuffer to-day. It had been obtained on 
North Curry Moor, a considerable distance inland for an oceanic 
diver. 
FEBRUARY. 
8rd. Sniping to-day over some high ground near Ilfracombe, we 
sprung a little flock of short-eared owls from some high grass on a 
swampy spot. They were of all shades of colour: the darker ones 
were no doubt young birds, while the light-coloured ones (some 
looked almost white as they flitted heavily away) were the heads 
of the family. 
4th. We were shooting on the Braunton Burrows to-day, where 
my brother noticed a little rail running on the ground between 
some clumps of the tall spiked rush, and shooting it picked up a 
very beautiful example of Baillon’s crake. 
Murray A. MatTHew. 
Bishop’s Lydeard, February 8, 1876. 
Notes from Castle Eden. By Mr. JoHN ScCLATER. 
(Continued from Zool. S. 8. 4750.) 
JuLy, 1875. 
Woodcock.—In the last week of July a young bird was shot 
near Castle Eden: the man who shot it did not know what it was. 
The bird had a strange appearance on the wing: he had shot at 
and missed it some days before. “ Itwas in the moult, pen-feathered, 
