NOTES AND QUERIES. 471 



from a meadow rise with some large object in his claws; he was com- 

 fortably wheeling away when I ran after him, and by holloaing made him 

 drop his load from a good height ; this proved to be a very fine Lark, with 

 the head and neck eaten off.— Edward A. Fitch (Maldon, Essex). 



[We have frequently observed Crows and Rooks breaking mussels by 

 rising with them into the air and dropping them from a height. — Ed.] 



Attachment of Magpie to Nesting Site. — Last spring a Magpie 

 uested in an apple tree in an orchard near Southwell, Notts, and laid e<™ s 

 1 went one day to try and shoot the old bird on the nest, and, as she was 

 not there, fired a couple of barrels into the nest, presumably breaking the 

 eggs. Shortly afterwards I was told she had built in the very next tree ; 

 and in this new nest she laid again and hatched.— E. F. Becher. 



Osprey in Lincolnshire.— On September 22nd I received a beautiful 

 specimen of the Osprey, which had just previously been shot in South 

 Lincolnshire. It measured five feet in the expanse of the wings, and 

 weighed nearly three pounds. It is a male, and in perfect feather.— 

 J. Cullingford (University Museum, Durham). 



An Albino Blackbird.— On August 13th I examined a perfect albino 

 of the Blackbird. It was an under-sized bird, which had been caught a few 

 days before at Stratford, Oxon, and lived in a cage until that morning. 

 The plumage was snowy white and the feathers remarkably delicate; irides, 

 feet, and legs pale pink. The bill was the only part which showed normal 

 colouring, and the yellow of this was curiously suffused with a pink tinge. — 

 Oliver V. Apljn (Great Bointon, near Banbury). 



FISHES. 



Sharks on the Coasts of Devon and Cornwall.— During the month 

 of September a large number of sharks have been seen, and several captured, 

 off the coasts of Devon and Cornwall. On the 12th of that month a fine 

 Blue Shark, Squalus glaucus, measuring between seven and eight feet in 

 length, was caught in a drift-net near the Eddystone Lighthouse, and 

 brought into Plymouth. Its colour on the upper parts was of a fine blue, 

 which by the next day had changed or faded to a leaden hue ; the under 

 parts and insides of the fins were nearly pure white. About the same date 

 a large Thresher, or Fox Shark, Squalus vulpes, fully fifteen feet in length, 

 was being exhibited about the streets in a cart ; and I also heard of many 

 other sharks of various kinds having been caught, but none of them were 

 preserved for our local museum.— J. Gatcombe (Stonehouse, Plymouth). 



Heavy Perch.— On the 3rd of September last I had a Perch sent me 

 which turned the scale at three pounds and a half. It is considered 



