ee 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 69 
Goose was shot, the second we have ever known to occur in this district ; 
the other was killed about twenty-five years since. I may also mention 
that a spotted Crake was sent to me from the Plymouth Market on 
Dec. 15th, quite fresh and in excellent condition; also a Landrail shot 
near here on Dec. 26th, which I believe is very late for both species, and 
the former of rare occurrence here, say one in five years.—R. P. NicHonts 
(Kingsbridge, Devon). 
Night Heron in Scotland.—The Night Heron, Nycticorax griseus (L.), 
although having a very wide distribution, may be considered rather a rare 
visitant to Scotland, for during the present century only some seven speci- 
mens have been recorded to have been obtained there. The individual in 
question (an immature female) was caught in the beginning of November 
last at Loch Creran, Argyleshire, by Mr. W. Anderson Smith, of Ledaig. It 
was in an exhausted condition when taken, the result probably of the 
severe storms then prevalent, and lived only a few days, and on Nov. 14th 
was presented in the flesh to the Kelvingrove Museum, where it is now 
preserved. The species has now been proved to be identical with that 
found in America, from which it was (till quite recently) said to differ.—J. 
M. Campsett (Kelvingrove Museum). 
Interbreeding of the Thrush and Blackbird.—As this subject has 
been already referred to in the pages of ‘The Zoologist’ (1884, p. 146), I 
should like to draw attention to an apparent case of this kind, which, as 
Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., has kindly pointed out to me, is recorded in 
Thompson’s ‘ Natural History of Ireland’ (vol. iii., Appendix, p. 456). He 
says :—‘ Another instance [of hybridity among birds] was made known to 
me in April, 1850, by Mr. Robert M. Austin, an eye-witness of the fact. 
At Waterloo Cottage, within a mile of Ayr, where this young gentleman 
resided, a female common Thrush (7. musicus) and a male Blackbird 
(T. merula) paired in the summer of 1849, built a nest in a small shrub, 
and produced three young in June, which were parti-coloured, having some 
black spots, the size of a sixpence, on their breasts. The notes of these 
young birds were frequently heard, and differed from those of Blackbird and 
Thrush by being more detached. Both parents are stated to have fed and 
tended the young. My attention was first called to this interesting 
circumstance by the Rev. W. M’Ilwaine, of Belfast, who happened to pay 
a visit to the place at the time.” The foregoing would have been noticed 
in my article upon the subject in the ‘Transactions of the Norfolk and 
Norwich Naturalists’ Society’ (vol. iii., part v., 1883-4, p. 588) had it 
come to light in time. I am inclined to think that it is one of those 
instances in which a female Blackbird may possibly have been mistaken for 
a Song Thrush,— Rosperr Minuer Carisry (Chignal St. James, near 
Chelmsford), 
