NOTES AND QUERIES. 193 



river near Thrapston, Dec. 7th, and a Dunlin, Triiiga alpina, in the same 

 neighbourhood, on the following day. It may seem absurd to record the 

 occurrence of such common birds as these, but we would beg those wha 

 are of that opinion to bear in mind that we are treating of the Ornithology 

 of an inland and comparatively small district, and the two last-mentioned 

 species, though neither of them very rare therein, are of some local interest. 

 On Dec. 12th, George Trowbridge, gamekeeper to Mr. Freeman, of Clapton, 

 heard strange cries proceeding from high in air overhead, and on looking 

 up saw a large " hawk" (probably a Peregrine) with a large bird shrieking 

 and struggling in its talons ; the said hawk was out of shot, but on shouts 

 and demonstrations from the person above named let go its quarry, which 

 was pursued and eventually shot by Trowbridge, and proved to be a very 

 fine specimen of the Oystercatcher, Hamatopus ostralerjus, an exceedingly 

 uncommon bird in this neighbourhood in our experience. The above 

 particulars were communicated to me by the Rev. E. P. Williams Freeman, 

 Rector of Clapton, who was also kind enough to present this Oystercatcher 

 to the writer. From the last-mentioned date till now I have been kept 

 entirely to the house by an attack of illness, so that my subsequent notes 

 are mainly from the observations of friends and neighbours. Dr. Tomlinson, 

 of Oundle, reported to me in December that on one of his journeys from 

 that town to visit me, he had seen on the roadside, not far from Barnwell, 

 a Blackbird, Turdus merula, " of the colour of a sandy cat." He has often 

 since noticed it about the same spot ; its existence seems to be well known 

 to some of our gamekeepers, one of whom, on being asked about the bird 

 by my son, took him to the place and found it at once by the roadside. 

 My son, who had a close view of the bird, describes it as being of the colour 

 of an Australian sovereign ; his sight of it took place ou Saturday, April 5th, 

 1884. I received for identification, Jan. 29th, 1884, a young specimen of 

 the Common Puffin, Fratercula arctica, from the Rev. G. Nicholson, of 

 Northampton, who informed me that it was brought to him alive on the 

 morning of Dec. 17th, 1883, having been caught by a cottager at Thornby, 

 near Naseby, struggling at his door during a severe storm on the evening 

 of Dec. 12th. This bird was erroneously recorded in the ' Journal of the 

 Northamptonshire Natural History Society,' and (we believe) in one or more 

 of our county newspapers, as a Little Auk, Mergulus alle. A good specimen 

 of the Bittern, Botaurus stellaris, was shot on our river near Ashton on 

 Jan. 26th, and presented to me in the tlesh, by Mr. Samuel Deacon, of 

 Polebrook, on the 30th. Heard of nest of Wood Pigeon, Columba palumbns, 

 containing eggs, for the first time this year, March I8th. A Tawny Owl, 

 Strix aluco, sitting upon four eggs, allowed the tree in which her nest was 

 situated, unknown to the woodmen, to be felled to the ground without 

 moving; she was taken uninjured, and brought to me, with the only 

 unbroken egg, March 26th. First Wheatear, Saxicola cenanthe, of season, 

 ZOOLOGIST. — MAY, 1884. Q 



