NOTES AND QUERIES. 467 



which I had heard this autumn in this neighbourhood. On Oct. 1st, I saw 

 the first Grey Crow, Corvus comix, of this season ; since this date we have 

 seen a good many of these northern robbers. Heard Golden Plovers for 

 the first time this autumn ; but one of our gamekeepers reported this day 

 that he had seen a " trip" of these birds, passing southwards, high in air, 

 about a fortnight ago. In this connection I may mention that on the 9th 

 March ult, the frost was so intense in this district that Mr. Hunt found 

 three Golden Plovers and several Lapwings, Vanellus vulgaris, feeding on a 

 spot from which the snow had been swept in the village street of Wadenhoe, 

 and shot one of the former birds, which fell into a pig-stye, and was recovered 

 with difficulty. We heard a Curlew, Numenius arquatus, on the afternoon 

 of October 5th, and Mr. Hunt saw one as he was standing for " flighting " in 

 one of our meadows at dusk ; this is an unusually late date for this bird in 

 this district. On the above-mentioned date I received as a present from my 

 friend and neighbour, the Rev. E. M. Moore, of Benefield, Oundle, a good 

 pair of Horned or Sclavonian Grebes, Podiccps auritus (Linn.), mounted 

 and cased by Rowland Ward, of Piccadilly; these birds were, as the donor 

 informs me, shot in the latter part of February, 1879, on Biggin Pond, near 

 Oundle, and are the only Northamptonshire specimens of their species in 

 my collection, although I have more than once recognised it on our floods, 

 and a good pair, killed on the garden pond at Drayton House, Thrapston, 

 April 10th, 1855, are in the possession of Mrs. Sackville, the owner of that 

 demesne. On Oct. 6th, heard the hooting of Tawny Owls, Strix aluco, for 

 the first time since our return home in August, close to this house. On 

 Oct. 8th, Miss A. Eden, of Boughton House, Kettering, reported to Mr. G. 

 Hunt having seen "a brilliant golden and black bird, about the size of a 

 thrush," fly from a yew tree in the garden at that place, about a fortnight 

 ago ; this, if not some exotic bird escaped from confinement, can only have 

 been a male of the Golden Oriole, Oriolus galbula, a species which has once, 

 to my knowledge, reared a brood of young in our neighbourhood, and I have 

 twice seen alive near this house. Mr. G. Hunt reported having seen on the 

 morning of October 10th a "trip" of some eighty or a hundred Golden 

 Plovers, passing high up our river valley near Wadenhoe. On Oct. 11th, 

 the gentleman above mentioned- found and shot two Spotted Crakes, Crex 

 porzana, in one of our meadows near Thrapston. This cannot properly be 

 called a common bird with us, and the above is a much later date for its 

 occurrence in this neighbourhood than any which I have on record. It may 

 appear strange to record the death of a Coot, Fulica atra, on October 12th, 

 but I do so because this species — common euough on our larger ponds and 

 reservoirs — was never naturally abuudant, in my experience, on the Nen. 

 Some twenty or more years ago, being anxious to establish a colony of these 

 birds on our river, I obtained some twenty fresh Coots' eggs from Norfolk, 

 and substituted them for those of the Waterhen in three nests of the latter 



