68 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



in a marked degree. It was a fairly old male, with bluish head and tail ; 

 this colour was very pale, and the " red " of the body was really more of a 

 yellowish brown, and presented a most washed-out appearance. It was also 

 a very small bird, but, owing to the warm weather and delay in transit 

 caused by the railways, it arrived in such an advanced state of decomposition 

 that I was unable to take any measurements. — Oliver V. Aplin (Great 

 Bourton, near Banbury). 



Food of the Stone Curlew. — On skinning a Stone Curlew the other 

 day I remarked the stomach distended with some hard substance, and, on 

 openino it, found that it contained an entire Helix variabilis, the diameter 

 of which was about one inch and height about five-eighths : the substance 

 of the shell of this species is thick. The stomach contained nothing else, 

 nor did there appear to be room ; the moUusk was slightly digested, and the 

 epidermis around the apex of the shell had been removed by the action of 

 the gastric juices. The bird was fat and in good condition; it must have 

 experienced considerable difficulty in passing the shell down the gullet. — 

 E. F. Becheu (Malta). 



[In many grallatorial birds the gullet is very distensible. We have 

 taken a number of cockles of large size with the shells entire from the 

 stomach of a Curlew, and wondered how they could have been swallowed 

 whole. — Ed.] 



Great Grey Shrike at York. — On November 3rd, 1883, my father saw 

 a bird in our grounds which, from his description as to the colouring, note, 

 &c., must have been a Great Grey Shrike. It had l)een seen about the 

 place for some few days, though after the 3rd I could hear nothing more of 

 it. A week or so after this a Great Grey Shrike was killed in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of this city, and I was shortly afterwards able to examine it. 

 I found it to be a female of the northern type of Lanius excuhitor, i. e., 

 Lanius major of Pallas. This is the second instance which has come 

 under my own notice of the capture of the above type in our county. The 

 other one, which is now in my collection, was taken five or six years ago 

 only a few miles away. — J. Backhouse, jun. (West Bank, York). 



American Bittern in Sussex. — A specimen of this bird was shot from 

 a patch of reeds near Amborley, in this county, on November 30th last, by 

 a man of the name of Knight, who attempted to stuff it, but, making a 

 mess of it, the bird was handed over to Pratt, the naturalist, of Brighton. 

 It proved, on dissection, to be a female, and the stomach was quite empty. 

 The flesh had not been taken out from the wings, and it was quite fresh 

 when I saw it. It is now in my collection. — W. BoBRKR(Cowfold, Sussex). 



Records of the Hoopoe in Hampshire.— A slight mistake occurs 

 in my note on this subject (p. 28) which I should be glad to have corrected, 

 as it rather alters the meaning. In the fourth line from the bottom 



