342 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



experiment, to see if the birds would touch it. Apparently they seem to 

 have relished it very much, as they probably would many other things 

 which they are unable to procure. — Ed.] 



Little Bittern at Colchester. —On visiting our local birdstuffer, Mr. 

 Ambrose, a short time since, I saw a specimen of the Little Bittern 

 {Botaiirus minutus) on his shelf. He informed me it was picked up under 

 the telegraph wires, having probably killed itself by contact with them. 

 This is the second specimen captured here within the last few years. — 

 Hknry Layer (Colchester). 



Food of the House Sparrow. — I am glad to be able to record some- 

 thing favourable of this bird ; the apple trees this year seem to harbour a 

 great number of the larvse of some insect, which rolls a leaf round itself. 

 The Sparrows have been very busy picking these leaves ofif the trees, and 

 then extracting the larvte. I think, however, that now they will cease to 

 do good, as various seeds are obtainable. 1 shot two yesterday ; their 

 stomachs were full of grass seeds, and I could not detect any insect 

 remains. — E. F. Bechek (Southwell, Nottsj. 



Spoonbill in the South of Ireland.— On the 7th of May last an adult 

 male Spoonbill was shot about a mile from the village of Fethard, County 

 Wexford. — John N. White (Rockland, Waterford). 



White Partridges. — Some years ago, among a brood of common brown 

 Partridges on my home-farm, there was one white one. The little bird 

 interested not only me, but my grieve and his children, who took so much 

 interest in it that if they saw the covey go off the farm they used to drive 

 them back ; and, lest it should be killed or lost, I forbade shooting on the 

 farm. At the proper season it paired with a brown bird, and the result 

 was five white and several brown birds. They were so purely white as to 

 be easily distinguished on the ground from white pigeons by their purity. 

 Again I took care of them. One was killed by a poacher, and found its 

 way to a birdstuffer in Elgin, from whom it was taken by Capt. Dunbar 

 Dunbar, of Seapark, on whose manors it had been poached. I believe he 

 still has it. The other four survived the season and paired — two white 

 ones together, and the other two with brown ones. I hoped for a good 

 number the next season, but they all disappeared, and there have been 

 none since. 1 should not have been surprised if they had all gone at once 

 in a covey, for they might have been netted, in spite of my keepers; but 

 they were in pairs, and with growing crops on the ground I could not 

 account for it. — J. Brodie Innes (Milton Brodie, Forres, N.B.). 



An Albino Cormorant.— A remarkable specimen of the Green Cor- 

 morant, Phalacrocorax graculus, was shot at Midj'ell, Shetland, on the 

 ^7ih February last, and sent to me for preservation, the general colour 



