468 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
it came to rest on the top of one of the telegraph-poles surmounting the 
railway embankment that here crosses the estuary. Whilst gaining a footing 
there the feathers of the head were erected, looking like one of the Short- 
eared Owls, and it emitted a loud clucking cry, swaying its body to and fro, 
the wings fully expanded. After a most exciting chase, during which 
another person fired at and missed it, Mr. Williams, by crawling amongst 
the grass and weeds, succeeded in bringing it down by a long shot just as 
a train came rapidly along. ‘Though severely wounded it made a desperate 
fight, striking out right and left with its strong talons and beak, and 
screaming fiercely. It was in immature plumage, and the extended wings 
measured five feet three inches from tip to tip. On September 7th three 
Curlew Sandpipers, Tinga subarquata, were shot at Clontarf, and a week 
later twenty-two were obtained out of a large flock near the same place. On 
September 24th, at Malahide estuary, near Dublin, three Little Stints, 
Tringa minuta, were obtained, the only ones seen. The following birds 
have also been received by Messrs. Williams & Son for preservation :—Two 
Great Northern Divers, Colymbus glacialis, in full adult breeding plumage, 
one killed by a rifle-bullet at the mouth of Waterford Harbour, the other 
killed at Lough Foyle. A cream-coloured Lapwing; that is, cream-coloured 
with the exception of a few blotches of faded brown across the breast and 
tips of the wings ; even the delicate crest is almost quite white. A curious 
cream-coloured variety of the Heron, Ardea cinerea, similarly mottled with 
pale brown; and a cream-coloured Swallow.—A. Witt1ams (7, Grantham 
Street, Dublin). 
[If these varieties had been secured alive and kept in confinement, they 
would in all probability have assumed their normal colours on moulting. 
Such at least has been the case with a cream-coloured Lapwing which has 
been for some time in the Western Aviary at the Zoological Gardens, 
Regent's Park; and we have known the same thing to occur in the case of 
a pied Blackbird.—Eb.] 
OrnitHoLocican Norgs rrom ALDEBURGH.—On July 27th I noticed 
a good many birds about the meres. Herons, Terns, Gulls, Ringed Plovers, 
and Dunlins were plentiful, and I saw a lot of Teal and a single Snipe. 
On July 30th an old Cormorant crossed over from the meres to the sea, and 
passed along shore towards the river within a hundred yards of me. The 
following day I saw a great quantity of Ducks in the further mere—not 
less than fifty couples. Very few were obtained through the first week of 
the shooting season, as after the first shot or two they all returned to the 
decoys. On August 9th I heard and saw a single Greenshank at Thorpe. 
A week later I walked down to the Lighthouses. A good many Terns were 
still to be seen about their breeding-place on the shingle between the two 
Lighthouses, and from their actions some appeared to have young ones still 
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