1374 The Zoologist — September, 1868. 



some heifers into the park the calves produced were in colour like the bull, having; 

 black hoofs, mouth, &c, and could scarcely be distinguished from Bos scolicus, thus 

 showing the strong native blood; but this may not hold good in all cases. The herd 

 always kept exclusively apart from the tame heifers, and since their introduction were 

 tamer: the cattle previously were very wild. A keeper going to tend an aged cow 

 which was dying, she turned upon him and threw him down, but managing to 

 extricate himself he took to flight just in lime to save himself from the infuriated 

 herd, as the bellowing of the cow brought them around her. He described them to 

 me as being larger and finer than those at Chillingham. — Theodore C. Walker; 

 Woodside, Leicester. 



Malabar Superstition respecting the Liver of the Tiger. — In the ' Zoologist ' (Zool. 

 S. S. 1217 and 1253) I have called attention to some curious local superstitions 

 respecting the livers of the otter, the bear and the wild boar. I have just met with 

 an instance of a similar idea as to the tiger, which obtains amongst the natives of the 

 Malabar State of Cochin, and is recorded in the following words in Mr. Francis Day's 

 interesting work, 'The Land of the Permauls,' p. 440: — " Natives assert that a new 

 lobe grows on to the liver of a tiger every year it lives, and therefore by an examination 

 of that organ the animal's age can be accurately ascertained." It seems very singular 

 that this opinion should be so widely spread, and applied to four such very different 

 animals as those above mentioned. — /. //. Gurnet/ ; Marldon, Tolnes, August 24, 

 1868. 



Honey Buzzard at Yarm. — I had a very fine female specimen of the honey 

 buzzard sent to me in May: it was obtained in this neighbourhood, where I have 

 known a specimen to occur before. — William Lister, jun. ; Glaisdale, Yarm, Yorkshire, 

 July 27, 1868. 



Note on Montagus Harriers, old and young, obtained in Cornwall. — In examining 

 two specimens of this year's Montagu's harrier (male and female) which were shot 

 this week with the parent birds, on the property of Mr. M. Henry Williams, near 

 Michel], in this county, I observe the plumage of the two birds agrees, with the 

 exception of a darker tone of colour along the mesial line of the feathers of the breast 

 and belly of the male: iu other respects the colour of the under parts in both speci- 

 mens exhibits a uniform light bay-brown colour, and the upper plumage dark 

 umber-brown, with the feathers more or less deeply bordered with rufous-yellow: the 

 male and female parent birds were sent with these specimens ; the former apparently 

 a two-year old bird, the gray slate plumage gradually cropping out with the rust- 

 coloured drop-like streaks on the flanks. — Edward Hearlc Rodd. 



Snowy Owls in Shetland. — Dr. Saxby has sent me three magnificent snowy owls 

 from Shetland this year: their skins are still soft and pliant. — J. H. Gurney,jun. 



Sedge Warbler in Dry Places. — I have read with much interest Lord Clermont's 

 note on the sedge warbler in dry places (Zool. S. S. 1342). It is, I think, not the 

 sedge warbler, but the reed warbler or wren, or a closely allied species, which Lord 

 Clermont has heard at Twickenham. I have resided here between seven and eight 

 years, and every summer a pair or two of birds similar to those heard by Lord Cler- 

 mont frequent and breed in my garden. They arrive about the middle of May and 

 nest the middle of June. On the 19 th of June, 1862, 1 took the nest, containing three 

 eggs similar in colour to those of the reed warbler, and shot the parent birds: it was 



