1090 The Zoologist — February, 1868. 



and when once on the wing they will fly a mile or more. The sense 

 of hearing in the partridge is wonderfully acute, for they will take 

 wing before one gets within two or three hundred yards of them, and 

 that too without a word being spoken, or even a whistle : I say the 

 sense of hearing, for in a turnip-field seeing one at such a distance is 

 impossible. They have been frequently found this season in the grass- 

 lands, where they roost when sufficiently open and bare of trees. 



Cuckoo. — I have lately seen a caged cuckoo belonging to a butcher 

 at Veutnor : it was taken from a hedgesparrow's nest early in the 

 summer, and fed on raw beef, on which it has continued to thrive. 

 Though very tame it is rather pugnacious, and emits a hissing noise, 

 and has already learned to imitate the barking of a dog. Though it 

 has lost its tail-feathers, I do not see that the moult has commenced, 

 the plumage of the neck and back being still marked with light red, 

 reddish white and brown. 



Fieldfare. — Not observed in this neighbourhood till the third week 

 in October ; but I see that a correspondent (Zool. S. S. 089) reports 

 having met with them about a month earlier (on the 25th of September). 

 I might not perhaps have questioned this, though the date is an early 

 one, had it not been stated that they were seen by two other persons, 

 for that looks as if the writer had been in doubt : if so, the question is, 

 are the individuals referred to well acquainted with the fieldfare and 

 its manner of flight ? If not, I shall be inclined to think it may have 

 been the missel thrush, a bird about the same size and not very dis- 

 similar in plumage or manner of flight. 1 lately saw a small flock, 

 which in the distance might readily have been mistaken for the field- 

 fare. 



Rednecked Grebe. — A handsome male was captured off Shanklin 

 towards the end of the month in a very strange way. A boatman, well 

 known to me, found the bird preening its feathers, and so intent was 

 it in performing its morning's ablutions that it allowed the boat to 

 approach within a few yards — close enough for the man to strike it a 

 stunning blow with a boat-hook or oar. I had no opportunity of 

 seeing it, it having been sent out of the island to be preserved, but 

 1 am told it was a splendid specimen. 



Redthroated Diver. — First observed towards the middle of No- 

 vember. 



Henry Hadfield. 



Ventnor, Isle of Wight, 

 December 10, 1867. 



