188 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



it right to place the real fact on record. A second specimen of the 

 Garganey, a male in fine plumage, was obtained recently in the county of 

 Dublin, and has come into the hands of Mr. Williams, naturalist, Dame 

 Street. — J. J. Dowling (1, Fingal Terrace, Clontarf ). 



The Kite in Glamorganshire. — Having read Mr. E. C. Phillips' 

 interesting note on the Kite in Breconshire (p. 145), I have referred to some 

 notes of mine respecting the occurrence of the Kite in Glamorganshire, 

 including an interesting communication on the subject which I received 

 some time since from Lord Aberdare, which I seud, thinking that perhaps 

 it may interest some of the readers of ' The Zoologist.' His lordship 

 writes : — " One fact may be worth recording, as showing the changes which 

 take place in one man's lifetime. When I was a youth ' Salmon-tailed 

 Kites ' were as common in this valley of Aberdare as Buzzards. I remember 

 one day counting no less than twenty-five of both sorts sailing above the 

 Duffryn Graig (a large wood adjoining his house). I once took the nest of 

 a ■ Salmon-tailed Kite,' and found in it a drowned puppy, the hind quarters 

 of a small pig, a rat, and a rabbit. Earlier still, about 1800, my father 

 and uncle (the late Dean of Llandaff ) borrowed the longest ladder in the 

 parish for the purpose of scaling a grove of oaks at Penrheioceiber (now an 

 important colliery village), with the object of getting the eggs of Herons 

 and Kites, which lived there amicably together. The ladder did not reach 

 the lowest branch of the lowest oak-tree, so they failed in their attempt. 

 Besides a heronry and Kite's nest, there was a rookery in the same grove, 

 which had disappeared before my time, the owner having cut it down, 

 tempted by the high prices given during ' the war' for oak timber for ship- 

 building purposes — seven shillings a foot being a common price." Lord 

 Aberdare goes on to say that he has not seen a Kite in his neighbourhood 

 for the last forty years, nor a Buzzard for about ten years. He adds: — 

 " Bare birds and occasional visitors were always more frequently seen in 

 the Vale of Glamorgan than among its mountains." The following more 

 recent occurrences of the Kite in Glamorgan have come to my knowledge : — 

 One that was shot by the late Mr. Llewelyn at Penllergare, near Swansea; 

 another killed in the Ystead Rhoudda Valley in 1873 ; and a third 

 obtained at Tirphil, in November, 1882. I heartily endorse Mr. Phillips' 

 hope that the birds he saw may remain unmolested and allowed to breed, 

 and also your wish that people would assist as much as possible in checking 

 the practice of making rare birds still rarer by shooting them whenever 

 an opportunity occurs. — Digby S. W. Nicholl (The Ham, Cowbridge, 

 Glamorganshire). 



Gulls on the Thames at Kingston. — During the third week of March 

 there were several Gulls flying and feeding over the river here. I made 

 out with the glasses the Common Gull (Larus canus), the Black-headed 



