The Zoologist — January, 1868. 1057 



whence these two specimens were brought. — Liverpool Courier. PS. by my Corre- 

 spondent — I am reluctant to differ from so high an authority as the ' Courier,' but 

 should rather regard these creatures as gorillas Darwinizing towards lions, and not as 

 hybrids at all. In the "struggle for existence" the carnivore may very possibly be 

 evolved from the frugivore ; roois and fruit growing scarce, an appetite for flesh would 

 be set up aud the mane and claws of lions developed. — Liverpool, December 14, 

 1867. 



A Cat killing a Squirrel. — For the last two years, off and on, we have had two 

 squirrels in our garden, and young ones have also been bred there. We have also 

 many cats, and one of these, about the middle of November, after watching one of the 

 little animals hide up some food for the winter on our lawn, pounced upon it, shook it 

 aud killed it, as a dog would a rat, and then ran off with it in its mouth to a consider- 

 able distance. Is it not unusual for a cat to kill a squirrel? — E. Charles Moor ; Great 

 Bealings, Woodbridge, Suffolk, December 16, 1867. [I should not have supposed this 

 an unusual occurrence ; but I cannot remember a similar one well authenticated. — 

 E. 2V.] • 



Large Game of the Kestrel.— On the 28th of November, when strolling over the 

 cliffs near Heme Bay, I disturbed a kestrel at his dinner, which, on examination, 

 I found to consist of a hooded crow: he had eaten all but the skin and head, over 

 which latter he was neatly turning the skin to finish. The eyes of the crow were quite 

 bright, and the bird had evidently not long been dead. In the same field there were 

 many hooded crows feeding quite unconcerned at the presence of the enemy. — John 

 Hunter ; Faversham, December 16, 1867. 



Rough-legged Buzzard near Truro. — I have never yet exactly identified this species 

 in the Cornish Fauna, although it is said to have been seen. Mr. George Copeland, 

 who first recorded the capture of the redbreasted flycatcher, informs me that a rough- 

 legged buzzard, killed at Truro, is now in the Museum of that town. — Edward 

 Hearle Ruld. 



Diagnostics of the Roughlegged Buzzard. — The female of the common buzzard 

 could not possibly be taken, even at the distance of four hundred yards, for the rough- 

 legged, which has the under parts of a yellowish white, whereas the female of the 

 former species is of a chocolate-brown beneath, and the back of so dark a brown as to 

 appear almost black in the distance; but though so dissimilar in plumage, the female 

 is nearly as large as the roughlegged species. The male of the common buzzard, as 

 I have remarked (Zool. 9842), when seen soaring in the distance, is so unlike the 

 female that it might be taken for a bird of a different species, and perhaps mistaken 

 for the roughlegged buzzard, by the casual observer, though of inferior size and 

 wanting the dark brown or black belt, which I agree with Wilson in considering the 

 distinguishing mark in buth sexes, though Gould says, the " white root to the tail is." 

 As your correspondent asks my opinion, I will endeavour to give one, though so little 

 being said as to colour of plumage, except the "upper part of the tail being white," 

 (the upper tail-coverls of the male of the common buzzard are whitish), it is difficult 

 to do so; however, as neither Lord Clifton nor his gamekeeper noticed the belt, though 

 the bird was inspected by the former through a glass when but one hundred yards off, 

 and was seen by the latter flying close overhead, I cannot but think this biid the male 

 SECOND SERIES — VOL. III. F 



