NOTES AND QUERIES. 183 
Jan. 20—25. Three Tufted Ducks, Fuligula cristata, were shot by 
Mr. G. Hunt on the Nene, in our neighbourhood, between these dates. 
Feb. 11. We received a young Kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla, in the flesh, 
from the Rev. E. Freeman, rector of Clapton, who informed us that the 
bird had been picked up near this village a few days previously. We have 
met with this species in our neighbourhood on several previous occasions, 
but consider it the least common of the six species of Gull which occasionally 
visit us. 
Feb. 26. First eggs of Wild Duck, Anas boschas, of the season, found 
near Lilford—Lizrorp (March 22, 1885). 
Red Grouse in Somerset and Wilts.—Some doubt seems to have 
been thrown on the occurrence of Red Grouse in Somerset and Wilts, as 
recorded in recent numbers ef ‘ The Zoologist.’ A Red Grouse was killed, 
within my own recollection, in a far more improbable locality than the 
Mendips—namely, at Knowlton Court, the seat of the late Admiral Hughes 
D’Aeth, within two miles of my own residence, and about ten miles inland 
from Dover. I cannot give the date, as the time is so far back, and my 
memory does not serve me, and the present owner, Mr. D’Aeth, has no 
record to refer to; I should think, however, it is full fifty years since. The 
bird, a female, is still in the hall at Knowlton Court, and I saw it only 
a few days ago. It was killed in the “Home Wood”—to add to the 
singularity of the locality. Whether these birds in Somerset and Kent 
had drifted south from the Derbyshire moors, or were escaped birds, it is 
difficult to say. But the latter conjecture, though I think it the least 
probable of the two, is not impossible, since I remember a Red Grouse 
having been brought from the Yorkshire moors to a house ( Hampton’s) in 
West Kent, where it lived for several years in a cage in the hall. This was 
an old cock bird, and its constant call in the morning used to echo through 
the house. Had this bird made its escape by any accident, and been shot, 
it would have been but one more instance, and there is no reason why 
Grouse may not have been kept in confinement elsewhere and escaped.— 
W. Oxenpen Hammonp (St. Albans Court, Wingham, Kent). 
Unusual congregation of Carrion Crows.—About 4 p.m. on the 28th 
December. last my brother and I saw collected in some trees near an oak 
spinney at Bloxham Grove, Oxon, where these birds always roost in winter, 
an assemblage of Carrion Crows, which we calculated must have numbered 
200 birds at least—small bodies of them frequently shifting their quarters 
made it impossible to count accurately. In severe weather our Crows almost 
entirely leave us, and as there were only a few about the roost the evening 
before, I think this great congregation may have consisted of passing 
visitors, moving gradually southward, the wind being N.E., and the weather 
cold about that time. I do not think they could have been our home birds, 
