OCCASIONAL NOTES. 303 



birds are fond of the roads, or broad tracks, over the sandy 

 portions of the " veldt." They are wonderfully tame, and 

 frequently crouch on the approach of a horse, man, or waggon, 

 instead of taking flight. The Kaffirs occasionally knock them 

 over with their whips. The nest is a neat structure, not unlike 

 that of our Sky Lark, composed of dry grass, and concealed 

 under a tussock of grass on the open veldt. The eggs are three, 

 frequently only two, in number, pale greenish white, freckled and 

 blotched with brown. In a nest taken by Butler they measured 

 '95 by '55 in, but these are doubtless unusually elongated, for in 

 three nests taken by Reid the average size is *85 by "6 in. A 

 young bird, obtained by Butler, which had just left the nest, was 

 beautfully variegated above with dark brown and buff, not the 

 least like the old bird that was feeding it. 



(To be continued.) 



OCCASIONAL NOTES. 



Badger in Essex. — The occurrence at the present day of so shy and 

 retiring an animal as the Badger in such a highly cultivated agricultural 

 county as Essex is of sufficient interest to deserve a record in the pages of 

 ' The Zoologist.' I have pleasure therefore in forwarding the following 

 particulars of the death of one. On the 2nd April last some children who 

 had been gathering oxlips informed an old man named Spencer, who is in 

 the employment of my uncle, Mr. Joseph Smith, of Great Saling, as foreman, 

 that they had found a Fox asleep on the edge of " Newpster" (New-pasture) 

 Wood, close behind his house. A few days later they told him they had 

 been again, and found that it was dead ; but it was not till the 8th that, 

 passing that way, he went to look, and finding that it was not a Fox, brought 

 it home and skinned it, spoiling the skin considerably in the operation, but 

 it has since been placed in good hands. Spencer is of opinion that it was 

 a female, and from the worn appearance of the teeth I have no doubt that 

 it is an old one. He says that when found it had its mouth full of grass, 

 and lay as if it had died a natural death. There was no appearance of any 

 wound. So far as I can discover no other Badger has been seen or heard of 

 in the neighbourhood for many years, and I should have thought it to have 

 been an extinct animal. It is difficult to understand how it could have lived, 

 as the district is not very thinly populated, is almost all under cultivation, 

 there are no large woods, and the Essex Hounds have one of their regular 

 meets within a mile of the spot, and with those of East Essex are constantly 



