5180 The Zoologist — December, 1876. 



a very handsome appearance. The general colour of the plumage is isabel- 

 line, not so clearly rufous as in an old bird." — Ed.] 



Bewick's Swan and other Birds at Kingsbridge, Beron. — I have to record 

 the occurrence, on the 14th of November, of a specimen of Bewick's swan. 

 A pair of swans were seen on the Kingsb ridge Estuary, and after a few 

 shots one of them was captured. I purchased it, and found on examination 

 that it was a female of Cygnus Bewickii. Its weight was eleven pounds 

 and a half; length, three feet ten inches; eyes very dark hazel. The 

 peculiar formation of trachea and sternum sufficiently indicated the species. 

 I may also mention the occurrence here of a female longtailed duck (Anas 

 glacialis). Shorteared owls are unusually plentiful this season ; I have seen 

 a great many which have been shot, and a friend of mine informed me that 

 he receutly flushed twelve from a small patch of furze. — H. Nicholls. 



Variation of Colour in the Teal. — One day while looking over a large 

 quantity of teal, taken in the Ashby Decoy, Brigg, Lincolnshire, I noticed 

 that their breasts were of all shades, from dark red to white. I pointed 

 this out to the old decoy man, who said that the breasts of all teal on 

 leaving the sea are of a deep red, but that the fresh water of the decoy 

 blanched them in a very short time if they were not taken. He always 

 picks out the red-breasted ones to send to the neighbouring gentry, con- 

 sidering them to be the finest. In the winter of 1874 a fine pochard 

 (Fuliijula ferina) was taken in this decoy, and is now in my collection. — 

 Adrian Peacock; Bottesford Manor, Brigg. 



[Pochards visit this decoy every winter, but from their habit of diving 

 back on perceiving themselves in the decoy pipe they are not so frequently 

 taken as the wild duck, teal and wigeon. — Ed.] 



Longtailed Buck near Padstow, Cornwall. — I have lately examined a 

 specimen of this arctic duck, which was shot a few days ago, and sent here 

 for preservation from the neighbourhood of Padstow. The bird has — what 

 I have never hitherto observed in the few specimens which have occurred in 

 this district over many years — white scapularies, which I apprehend denotes 

 it to be an adult male in winter plumage ; besides which it is decidedly larger 

 than the other examples I have seen, and which all had a generally dark brown 

 dorsal plumage, denoting the female or young male of the year. — E.H.Rodd. 



[The white scapulars no doubt denote the adult male bird in winter 

 plumage. In summer these feathers are chesnut, each with a black centre. 

 Adults of this species are rarely met with off our southern shores, although 

 in some winters immature examples are now and then obtained. In the 

 Albert Memorial Museum at Exeter, however, is an adult male longtailed 

 duck in summer plumage (still more unusual), which is said to have been 

 shot on the Exe in 1847.— Ed.] 



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T. P. NEWMAN, PEINTEH, 32, BOTOLPH LANE, EASTCHEAr, E.C 



