NOTES AND QUERIES, 67 



nest of eggs, Norfolk, 1879. This group is entitled ' The Widowed Bird, 

 and illustrates the well-known fact of the living bird hovering over its dead 

 or wounded partner." Now, it so happens that two or three of my own 

 friends, who had seen Mr. Gunn's Terns in London (not noticing the 

 altered position of the hovering bird), have asked me whether I lent 

 my case to Mr. Gunn for exhibition, because it ivas his oivii work. 

 I may state, however, that Sayer did execute a copy for another customer, 

 with my permission, though, like most replicas, it was not equal to the first. 

 This, if I remember right, was not very long since in Mr. Gunn's hands 

 to dispose of. On the principle, therefore, of " Palmam qui meruit ferat," 

 the design, unquestionably, is not Mr. Gunn's ; the sentiment, perhaps, 

 may be traced home in the following couplet which I wrote at the time, 

 and had placed on the front of my case " to point a moral " : — 



Have they no feeling ? or does man pretend 

 That he, alone, can make or moui'n a friend. 



Now, it has been said that " imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." 

 I ought to feel proud, therefore, that Mr. Gunn has appended the following 

 lines to the entry of Case 122 in his Catalogue : — 



" Oh, pity the sorrow of a lonely mate 

 Whose partner met with a cruel fate ; 

 And your voice in futm-e protesting 

 The wanton destruction of bii'ds when nesting." 



— HuNRY Stevenson (Norwich). 



Wildfowl at Aldehurgh.— With regard to Mr. Rope's statement (Zool. 

 1883, p. 496) concerning the breeding of the Shoveller near Leiston, I 

 may say that while at Aldeburgh last summer I saw at least twentj 

 Shovellers, botli mature and immature, in the poulterers' shops, and 

 naturally concluded that the immature birds had been bred in the neighbour- 

 hood. I was, however, surprised to see amongst them an immature Gad- 

 wall, which I purchased. I afterwards procured an immature Pochard; 

 and, after I had left Aldeburgh, a male Pintail, in summer plumage (shot 

 on September 17th), was sent up to me. I saw an immature Great-crested 

 Grebe that had been shot by a gunner the summer before last, and another 

 that had been shot on the Aide River. On August 7th a fisherman brought 

 me a nearly mature Red-necked Grebe in summer plumage that he had 

 shot on the Aide River. — Theo. Lister (Erfurt Lodge, Greenwich). 



Pale-coloured Kestrel from Skye.— Referring to Dr. Saxby's remarks 

 (' Birds of Shetland,' p. 28) upon " the exceedingly pale and faded appearance 

 of the plumage of Kestrels killed in Shetland, especially in autumn," I may 

 mention that a specimen which my friend the Rev. H. A. Macpherson sent 

 me in May last, from the north-west coast, of Skye, exhibited this peculiarity 



