466 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Capture of a Dolphin off Plymouth. — On the 13th September a 

 Dolphin, Delphinua delphis, rather curiously marked, was purchased by 

 Mr. W. Hearder, of Union Street, Plymouth. Besides the wavy lines 

 generally seen on the sides of this species, its body was crossed by five 

 rather faint, but perfectly distinct, narrow bauds. These peculiar marks — of 

 which I have made a coloured sketch — I had never before observed on any 

 other example of this cetacean ; but, strange to say, I have since read of a 

 AVhite-beaked Dolphin. Delphinm dlbirostris, similarly marked, having been 

 lately captured near Berwick. — J. GaTCOMBE (Stonehouse, Plymouth). 



BIRDS. 



Notes on the Ornithology of North Northamptonshire. — Since my 

 last date in this Journal, via. Sept. 15th (p. 425), my notes will, I fear, 

 present little but purely local interest; but here they are for what they may 

 be worth. On Sept. 15th a Dabchick, or, as it is called by our country 

 people, "Didopper," Podiceps fluviatilis, took wing no less than three times 

 before my boat as I was fishing on the Nen, at a short distance above this 

 house. Although this Bpecies is common enough on our river, and to be 

 seen during sharp frosts in every open pool, or " wake," in the ice, I seldom 

 meet with it during the summer months without hunting for it, and never 

 before the above occurrence saw one rise and fly from thick covert, unpressed 

 by a dog; the individual in question appeared to be a young bird of the 

 year. On Sept. 21st, the first Jack Snipe, Scolopax gaUinula, of this 

 season was shot by my son from a rushy pit near Thorpe Waterville. The 

 earliest date of appearance of this species in this neighbourhood I find in 

 my Game-book for 1852, in which year I killed a Jack Snipe on Sept. 7th. 

 Mr. G. Hunt found and shot nine of these Snipes on the 11th of the current 

 month (October, 1883). On Sept. 21st, Grey Wagtail, Motacilla melanope, 

 seen for the first time this autumn, by the river-side close to this house. 

 On Sept. 26th, Redwings, Turdus iliacus, seen for the first time this 

 season ; also lling Ouzel, Turdus torquatus, and Wigeon, Mureca penelope. 

 On Sept. 28th, for the first time in my life, I saw a Kestrel, Falco thinun- 

 citlus, make a fierce stoop at a covey of Partridges, and fairly, as we say in 

 falconry, " put them in." On this day I saw more Goldfinches, Carduclis 

 elegans, flocking together than I ever met with before, except in Spain; 

 these must have been nearly three hundred in one flock seen by us. 

 I record this fact, as this species in many parts of England appears to be 

 diminishing greatly in numbers, from the reclaiming of the rough and 

 weedy pasture lands in which it delights. On October 4th, two Landrails, 

 Crex pratensis, were seen, and one shot in a piece of strong clover. I have 

 records of the occurrence of this species in November, and once in January, 

 hereabouts, but we generally reckon that they have left by September 30th. 

 Mr. G. Hunt shot a Merlin, Falco asalon, an immature male, the first of 





