470 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



fishermen had shot four out of seven Godwits, and, being rather puzzled 

 with their large size and dark tails, had sent them to a birdstuffer at 

 Hastings. I afterwards went to see them there ; they were four Black- 

 tailed Godwits, now very rarely found in these parts. At our last visit we 

 were told there were some Dotterels (E. morinettw) somewhere about the 

 place, but it is of large extent, and we could not hit them off. On the 18th, 

 Bristow, the St. Leonards birdstuffer, showed me a very curious piebald 

 Lapwing that had been sent him from Pevensey. — Robert H. Mitford 

 (Weston Lodge, Hampstead). 



Tufted Duck and Common Tern in Oxfordshire. — Strolling round 

 Clattercutt Reservoir on October 7th, 1 noticed a dark-coloured duck among 

 some Coots upon a distant part of the water. I walked down, under cover 

 of a thick hedge, and contrived to get within some thirty yards of a fine 

 adult male Tufted Duck, Fuligula cristata, which, with the aid of a glass, 

 I was able to see very clearly. It appeared rather uneasy at first, being 

 alarmed by the sudden rising of a Mallard from the reeds, but soon settled 

 down and began actively diviug for food. It had acquired the full black 

 and white winter dress, and looked very handsome, and very different from 

 those I saw in Nottinghamshire in August. With us in North Oxon it is 

 decidedly a rare bird. In December, 1878, I saw a male, in the flesh, which 

 had been taken on this water, and I have heard of one other occurrence. 

 In the south of the county, near the Thames, it is rather more often met 

 with. A Common Tern was shot by a boatman on the canal near Banbury 

 on Sept. 12th. — Oliver V. Aplin (Great Bointon, near Banbury, OxOn). 



The last Great Auk. — It is generally supposed that this bird has been 

 extinct for the last forty years. In the ' American Naturalist,' however, for 

 187'^ (vol. vi. p. 300) there appears a notice of one which was found dead on 

 the Labrador coast in 1870 The writer of the notice, Mr. Ruthven Deane, 

 says: — "While at Montreal, in August, 1871, Mr. Alfred Lechevallier, a 

 naturalist who has collected largely in Labrador, informed me of a specimen 

 of this supposed to be extinct species. It was found dead in the vicinity of 

 St. Augustin, Labrador coast, in November, 1870, by some Indians, from 

 whom Mr. Lechevallier obtained it while collecting there at the time. It 

 was a male, and, although in a very bad state, he preserved it, and has 

 recently (1872) sold it to a naturalist in France, who is to send it to Austria. 

 Although it was a very poor specimen he realised two hundred dollars." We 

 should be glad to know whether any of our readers have seen this specimen, 

 and can add anything further to its history; also whether they can inform 

 us where it is now deposited. — Ed. 



Prehensile Feet of the Crow. — Having lately read an interesting 

 letter priuted in ' Science' (vol. ii. p. ^ijoj, under the above heading, I was 

 rather struck yesterday (Oct. *!nd) by seeing a Crow which I disturbed 



