OCCASIONAL NOTES. 151 



part indeed touching it), in the stump of oneof the small old thorn bushes which 

 grow commonly along our streams. The occurrence seems the more strange 

 because (as you pointed out in ' The Zoologist ' for last month with regard 

 to the eastern and southern streams generally) our streams are generally 

 sluggish, and have rather low earthy or muddy banks, never approaching a 

 rocky bank. The nest was preserved in the stump as it was found, and this 

 is the only instance I know of the Dipper breeding in North Oxfordshire.— 

 Oliver V. Aplin (Banbury, Oxonj. 



A Melanism of the Redwing.— On the 1st January, 1881, a curious 

 variety of the Redwing was caught by a man netting birds at Beeston, near 

 Nottingham. The plumage is as follows :— Head and back dark chocolate- 

 colour ; tail dark hazel, with a slight tinge of grey-blue near the ends of the 

 two outer feathers; wings light brown on the outer sides of the flight 

 feathers, and blackish hrown on the inside, the first being of a slaty-blue, 

 the last four the same colour, and also some of the feathers on the shoulder, 

 the outside ones of which have black edges to them; the breast dark 

 chocolate, with black and yellow markings. This bird I have shown to 

 Prof. Newton, Messrs. Dresser, Borrer, and Sharpe, also to Mr. Tindall, of 

 Knapton Hall, Yorkshire (who thinks it is the young of the Blue Thrush). 

 Messrs. Dresser and Sharpe consider it to be melanism of the Redwing. 

 —J. Whitaker (Rainworth Lodge, Mansfield). 



Uncommon Birds in the Orwell.— On the 6th September last a 

 Cormorant was seen in the water near Pin Mill, but although fired at and 

 badly wounded managed to escape. On the 7th October three Eider Ducks 

 were seen near Levington Creek, two of which were shot, and the third 

 obtained near Harwich on the following day. All three were in immature 

 plumage. An indifferent specimen of the female Long-tailed Duck was 

 shot in the Bathing-place Creek, quite close to Ipswich, on the 25th Octo- 

 ber, and on the '24th November, during a gale from the south-east, another 

 Long-tailed Duck was shot in the same creek. This was also a female, but 

 a much better specimen than the one first obtaiued.— J. H. H. Knights 

 (Ipswich). 



Little Crake in Ireland.— Mr. A. G. More states (p. 114), that no 

 occurrence is known of the Little Crake in Ireland. I may mention that 

 there is a specimen of this bird in the collection of Canon Tristram, which 

 was killed at Balbriggan, and which I have had the pleasure of seeing 

 many times, and about the correct identification of which there is no doubt. 

 There is a record of it in ' The Zoologist ' for 1854 (p. 4298.)— J. H. Gurney 

 Jun. (Northrepps, Norwich). 



Falconry in Wales.— In answer to the remarks of Mr. F. H. Salvin 

 (p. 117), I beg to assure him that I knew Morgan Williams well. He has 



