NOTES AND QUERIES. 437 
abundance in Martindale: here they breed, but disappear in winter.” 
Macgillivray also (‘ British Birds,’ vol. ii., p. 103), quoting from the Rev. 
Nathaniel Paterson, in the statistical account of the parish of Galashiels, 
in Selkirkshire, observes :—‘‘ The Moor Blackbird, too, has of late years 
become a troublesome spoiler of the garden—a daring thief that comes 
before the windows and carries off a plum nearly as large as itself, showing 
by its chatter more of anger than of fear when it is disturbed in the work 
of depredation. Currants, gooseberries, cherries, plums, and the finest 
wall-fruit are its prey.” In the autumn the Ring Ouzel regularly visits 
the gardens attached to the shepherds’ houses in Cheviot, and is more 
pertinacious and determined in its attacks on the fruit than any of its 
congeners.—JoHN CorDEAUX (Great Cotes, Ulceby). 
Varieties of Wood Pigeon and Magpie.—It may interest Mr. 
‘Marshall to know that I have a pure white Wood Pigeon in my possession, 
belonging to Mr. Alfred Beaumont; but I know nothing of its history. I 
have also one with the upper parts mottled with various shades of drab, 
killed, I believe, in Lancashire. Besides the varieties enumerated by 
Mr. Aplin, two of which, I perceive, are those in Mr. Whitaker's collection, 
I recently sketched a third from the same collection, which has the head, 
breast, and back sooty brown, primaries and tail grey, scapulars and under 
parts dull white, bill inclined to yellowish, legs normal. I have also in my 
possession another having all the parts usually black, of a very pale grey. 
—S. L. Mostey (Huddersfield). 
Albino Birds.—During the past year I have observed an unusually 
large proportion of albino and mottled birds. Recently at Richmond Park 
I saw a white Pheasant, and at Kingston a Rook with a white wing regaling 
itself with walnuts; also two black-and-white Blackbirds, and a pure white 
bird supposed to be a Swallow have lately been seen there. In addition, 
I saw and captured a pure albino Sparrow last year.—F. V. THEOBALD 
(Kingston, Surrey). 
A remarkably tame Wryneck.-—I have or some time been thinking of 
writing to you about a bird, which I have called my odd Wryneck: odd 
because it is a single bird, and also because its ways have been, to my 
mind, so very odd. For the last three years a young Wryneck has come to 
my garden by itself. It is so tame that it has let my gardener and his boy 
take it up in their hands and pet it, and when they have let it fly it has 
gone to the nearest tree; and two Chimney Swallows have made swoops 
upon it, but have not hurt it. I have myself handled it. I have never 
seen any old Wryneck with it. I have heard Wrynecks when they have 
come at their usual time, but have never seen one with the young one 
I am writing of. This is the third year in which it has appeared in 
my garden. I send this account without attempting to explain it, but I 
