NOTES AND QUERIES. 489 



August : I noticed them first on the mud at Clattercutt Reservoir on the 

 2nd, when three birds were busy feeding at the very edge of the water near 

 to some Common Sandpipers, with which, however, they do not associate. 

 Mr. W. W. Fowler, writing to me from Kingham on the 11th, mentioned 

 that they were there in unusual numbers. On the 21st I purchased an 

 adult bird which was shot at Astrop, Northamptonshire, that morning; and 

 a week later another— a bird of the year, I think — was shot on the Cher- 

 well below Bodicote, and given to me. It is very rarely tliat the Green 

 Sandpiper visits us in spring, but I saw one this year at the Reservoir on 

 March 15th (the same day that the ChiffchafF arrived), and one on the river 

 the year before, on the 25th of that mouth. With regard to the musky 

 odour of this species, observed by some writers [vide Yarrell, 4th edition), 

 I may mention that in the Bodicote bird it was very strong, while the 

 Astrop bird had not a trace of it, and the man who skinned it said he 

 ate the body and found it very good. A Black Tern (probably in its second 

 year), changing to winter plumage, was shot at Barton on August 21st, and 

 Mr. Darbey tells me he had an adult bird in May, which was killed on the 

 Isis near Letchlade. On August 2nd and 4th I saw six Teal on the 

 Reservoir — evidently a brood, but all full grown ; they were probably 

 hatched there or in the immediate neighbourhood. This is the first 

 instance of Teal nesting in North Oxon that has come under my notice, 

 although in 1880 I put up a pair from an osier-bed early in April. On 

 September 7th two Gulls, apparently immature Larus argentatus, flew over 

 Bodicote village within gunshot. — Oliver V. Aplin (Gt. Bourton, Oxon). 



Barred Warbler in Yorkshire. — An immature example of the Barred 

 Warbler, Sylvia nisoria, was obtained by me on the Yorkshire coast on 

 the 28th August last, and was exhibited at the evening meeting of the 

 Zoological Society on November 4th. The bird is a female of the year; 

 the wings and tail are much hke those of the adult in markings, but a shade 

 duller in tints ; the rump is barred with white, and the faintest traces of 

 dark bars appear on the flanks, back, and rest of under parts unbarred : 

 irides brownish yellow; feet and legs horn-colour. It is much like an 

 example shot in Sweden about the same time of year, and now in the British 

 Museum. This makes the second occurrence of Sylvia nisoria in the 

 British Islands. For the first record, near Cambridge, see Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1879, p. 219.— H. H. Slater (Irchester Vicarage, Wellingborough). 



[A third specimen has been obtained in Norfolk. See p. 493. — Ed.] 



White Stork at Pevensey. — Mr. Vidler, of Pevensey, near Hastings, 

 has kindly sent me a specimen of the White Stork, Ciconia alba, killed 

 during the latter part of August last. Mr. Vidler writes : — " There were 

 two of the Storks, and they remained about the sea-shore for several days, 

 but seemed very shy : at last one was shot by a coastguard ; the other flew 

 away inland, and was seen no more. — T. H. Nelson (Redcar). 



ZOOLOGIST. — DEC. 1884. 2 P 



