432 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Banbury, who also saw it skinned. It was to all appearance a wild bird, 

 the wing and tail-feathers being perfect, and the bird in good condition. 

 The stomach contained several coleopterous insects and one caterpillar. 

 Mr. Aplin states, iii a letter to me, that he himself is perfectly satisfied 

 that the bird is a wild one, and, from its plumage and contents of stomach, 

 I should think the same. It has previously occurred in a wild state in 

 Heligoland, and there is no reason it should not do so in Britain. — 

 J. Whitaker (Rain worth Lodge, near Mansfield, Notts). 



[This is the specimen which has been already noticed in ' The 

 Zoologist' (1881, pp. 422, 471). We are sorry to disabuse our corre- 

 spondent of the idea that he possesses a British-killed specimen of the 

 Alpine Chough, in the sense in which he would understand it. " British- 

 killed," in one sense, it is ; but we have no doubt that it had previously 

 escaped from confinement. The Alpine Chough is not migratory, and not 

 at all likelv to occur here in a wild state. Neither is our own Cornish 

 Chough migratory, and is almost as unlikely to occur iu Oxfordshire as 

 the other. — Ed.] 



Ring Ouzel in Northamptonshire. — In the last week of August a 

 Ring Ouzel was shot at Hazelbeech, ill this county. As the few specimens 

 of this bird that annually pass through this county in their autumnal 

 migration generally arrive here during the first week in October, the 

 appearance of this specimen at so early a date is remarkable. The bird 

 was a male in mature plumage. — H. F. Tomalin (24, York Parade, 

 Northampton). 



Totands solitarius at Scilly. — I have to record the occurrence at 

 Scilly, on the 2Jst September last, of the American Solitary Sandpiper, 

 Totanus solitarius, Wilson [Chloropygius, Vieillot). It is about the size of 

 our Wood Sandpiper, which it much resembles, but is at once distinguishable 

 by not having the upper tail-coverts white as in our bird. It was identified 

 by Mr. Dorrien Smith, of Tresco, Scilly, for whose collection it has been 

 preserved by Mr. W. H. Vingoe, of Penzance, and by an American gentle- 

 man who happened to be in Penzance at the time of its arrival here. 

 I believe this is the first recorded occurrence of this species in the British 

 Islands. — Thomas Cornish (Penzance). 



[Some years ago a bird of this species was shot on the Clyde in Lanark- 

 shire, as recorded by Mr. Robert Gray, 'Ibis,' 1870, p. 292, and ' Birds of 

 Scotland,' p. 295. — Ed.] 



Rose-coloured Pastor in Jersey. — A fine specimen of the Rose- 

 coloured Pastor, Pastor roseus, was shot here in the parish of St. Martin, 

 on the 13th June last. It is a male in full plumage, and has been secured 

 for the local museum. I think the species has been killed here once before, 

 though not recorded. — J. Sinel (Bagot, Jersey). 



