268 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Mr. Nicholl correctly states, recorded, in 'The Zoologist' for 1875, the 

 capture of an adult female of this species here at Moyview, Co. Sligo (not 

 Mayo) on the 18th of April of that year, and the specimen may be seen in 

 the collection of the Royal Dublin Society, Kildare Street, Dublin. The 

 occurrence of this bird is also noticed in my list of the birds of the Moy 

 Estuary, in « The Zoologist ' for June, 1877 (p. '237), but, although this 

 specimen is the first recorded to have been captured in Ireland, I have no 

 doubt that many other examples may have passed unnoticed, from the fact 

 that Mr. R. M. Barrington, in the ' Report of the Migration of Birds 

 observed at Lighthouses and Light-ships for 1886,' states that a wing of an 

 individual of this species was sent to him from the Tearaght (one of the 

 Blasket Islands off the Kerry coast), the bird having struck the lantern on 

 the night of the 21st of September of that year. — Robert Warren 

 (Moyview, Ballina). 



Honey Buzzard near Bury St. Edmunds. — A fine female Honey 

 Buzzard was shot by a keeper at Culford, near Bury St. Edmunds, on 

 June 11th, and came into my possession in the flesh. Its crop and 

 stomach contained fragments of Blackbirds' eggs and the remains of several 

 unfledged birds. The largest egg in the ovary was about the size of a pea, 

 so I do not suppose it would have nested this year. I can find no record 

 of this species ever having attempted to breed either in Norfolk or Suffolk. 

 — Julian G. Tuck (Tostock Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds). 



Hoopoe in Hampshire. — Early in May I heard that the Hoopoe had 

 been seen in several localities in this county. In one instance a pair 

 frequented a wood for a week or ten days and then disappeared ; but during 

 their stay they were very familiar, coming out on a lawn near the wood, and 

 searching for food amongst the grass. Indeed, in every instance the 

 tameness of the specimens was observed. I am glad to say that only one, 

 so far as I know, has been killed, a male in breeding-plumage. I believe a 

 boy caught it or picked it up, as the plumage was quite uninjured. Its 

 gizzard contained the empty skins of three or four dipterous grubs, and a 

 peculiarity I noticed about the beak was that both upper and lower 

 mandibles were quite flat and smooth on the inner surface, without the 

 cutting edges so marked in many species, and doubtless well adapted to its 

 peculiar mode of feeding. — G. B. Corbin (Ringwood, Hants). 



Ducks preying on Trout. — I am quite prepared to corroborate Mr. E. 

 L. Mitford's experience (p. 225) with regard to the fact of a duck capturing 

 and eating a Trout. Having in my grounds some thirty-seven Trout- 

 ponds, I have had some opportunity of observing the habits of birds 

 frequenting them. I was compelled to give up keeping ducks owing to the 

 injury they did to the fish. I question very much if a duck could catch a 

 Trout in a fair chase, but that is not their plan. It is well known how 

 Trout, on being alarmed, seek the shelter of some hole or corner, and it is 



