NOTES AND QUERIES. 107 
Oriole, Hoopoe, Bec-eater, &c., are common in many parts of the Continent, 
and therefore specimens, if desired, are readily procurable. Almost every 
year these and other birds visit the British Islands, and in some instances 
doubtless would stay and breed if they were only protected. Instead of 
this, as soon as one is noticed it is immediately shot at, and either killed 
or frightened away. Many persons styling themselves “ naturalists,” I fear, 
are to a great extent answerable for this, by offering high prices for British- 
killed specimens, even sometimes shooting them themselves during the 
close time, in defiance of the law. Would it not be more becoming on the 
part of British ornithologists to discourage the killing of these feathered 
visitors, and to encourage them to stay and breed in these islands, procuring 
their “specimens,” if wanted, from abroad?—S8. L. Mosrey (Science 
Department, South Kensington Museum). 
Movements of Grouse in Hard Weather.— For some weeks in 
January this neighbourhood was covered to a considerable depth with snow, 
which, owing to sudden changes from thaw to frost with frequent fresh falls 
of snow, became a very solid mass. ‘There was considerably more than a 
foot in depth above the heather on the moors, and large drifts formed on 
a very extensive scale. The Grouse suffered severely, being quite unable 
to penetrate the frozen mass for food, and in consequence they left the 
moors for the lower cultivated ]and to an extent never previously observed. 
The nearest point of moor to Masham is three miles distant, but the open 
moors are considerably further away. Walking near this ground great packs 
of Grouse would sweep overhead, and pass right down the valley over the 
town. A field of turnips was swarming with the starving birds, which 
vainly attempted, with numerous Partridges, to scratch down for food. The 
Grouse were perched on the fences, feeding on the berries like so many 
Fieldfares, aud on several occasions they alighted amongst the branches of 
trees. They were feeding in the hedgerows about Burton House, and close 
to the outskirts of the town, and even on the heaps of manure close to 
buildings where persons were working all day. As far as one could see they 
had abandoned the moors, and were feeding miles away in the cultivated 
districts on anything they could get in the way of food. A large farmer 
whose land lies three miles still further away from their usual haunts states 
that immense flocks of Grouse were feeding in his turnip fields. Gangs of 
men were being employed to clear away the snow from patches of heather, 
but their efforts did very little towards providing feeding-ground for the vast 
numbers of starving birds—THomas Carrer (Burton House, Masham). 
{We learn from another source that about the time above mentioned 
there was an extraordinary exodus of Grouse from the moors in the 
neighbourhood of Ilkley, in consequence of the very inclement weather. 
The birds in many places left the moorland altogether, and large packs 
were seen in the fields about Arthington aud Weeton, and even as low as 
