426 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



accuracy I have complete faith : — Twenty Magpies, Pica rustica, were shot 

 in two days, hy ray informant and his brother, about Barnwell Wold 

 (G. H., ut supra litt., Jan. 4th). I received a Greater Spotted Wood- 

 pecker, Picus major, female, from G. H., shot by one of my gamekeepers 

 near this place on Jan. 10th. Several hundreds of Herring Gulls, Larus 

 argentatus, were seen near Barnwell by G. H. (litt., Jan. 9th). Mr. Hunt 

 has recently informed me that the numbers of this species gradually 

 increased to some thousands, which frequented the flooded meadows in the 

 valley of the Nen, between this place and Thrapston, for several weeks 

 during the daytime, and regularly passed northwards in straggling flocks 

 each afternoon ; the great attraction to the Gulls was no doubt the vast 

 quantity of drowned earthworms in the meadows, several of these Gulls, 

 shot at this period hereabouts, having their maws crammed with the 

 animals above named. In 'The Field' of Jan. 13th last there appeared a 

 notice, dated Jan. 10th, 18S3, of the occurrence of a Woodchat, Laniut 

 rufus, near Stamford, communicated to that paper by Mr. A. G. Elliott, of 

 that town, who, in answer to my inquiries, wrote as follows : — " The Wood- 

 chat noted in ' The Field ' was picked up dead on the 9th inst ; it is a 

 female, and in fair condition ; the plumage is slightly soiled. It appears to 

 have been on the fallow-land some time, and had been dead at least two days 

 before I received it ; one side of the head was slightly decomposed ; it was 

 in very poor condition, and showed all the appearance of a bird that is 

 picked up in a long frost. The exact locality, I believe, would be in 

 Wothorpe parish, but it is in the occupation of a Stamford farmer, and 

 within one hundred yards of Burghley Top, or deer-park, so that in reality 

 the bird was found in Northamptonshire. The Lanius rufus I hope to 

 place in my collection of British small birds. I have had several appli- 

 cations to purchase, also several gentlemen to see the bird : it will be there 

 for show." .Mr. Elliott also mentioned, in the same communication, the 

 occurrence of a Kentish Plover, . Kgialitis cantiana, near Wansford, on 

 25th November, lss-j. If his determination of this species is correct, this 

 is the first occurrence of the bird in this neighbourhood which has come to 

 my knowledge. I may mention that I am personally acquainted with Mr. 

 Elliott, and have no doubt whatever as to his perfect good faith and con- 

 siderable acquaintance with British birds. On April 19th I received a 

 letter from Mr. G. Hunt, in which he wrote of having seen six Bernacle 

 Geese, Bernicla Icucojjsis, fly past him at a short distance as he was fishing 

 in the Nen near the village of Aldwincle. I never heard of the occurrence 

 of this species hereabouts in an apparently wild state before; the proba- 

 bility, at this distance from the sea, is of course in favour of these Geese 

 being semi-domesticated birds, but most persons who keep " fowl " in that 

 condition are careful to have them pinioned, and on the whole I am disposed 

 to give these birds the benefit of the doubt, and to consider them as an 



