894 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
be a male, and is now in the hands of Mr. Picken, of Bridge Street, 
Manchester, to be preserved for the collection of Mr. George Comber, of 
Myddleton Hall, Cheshire. I have carefully gone through several bird- 
books, including about ten years of ‘ The Zoologist,’ but cannot find any 
record of the Roller having been met with in Kirkcudbrightshire before.— 
Jouxson WILKINSON (Huddersfield). 
[For records of the occurrence of this species in Scotland, see Gray’s 
‘ Birds of the West of Scotland,’ pp. 202, 203.—Ep.]} 
Grey Shrike in Nottinghamshire in April.—During the second week 
in April a Grey Shrike was shot by a keeper within a few fields of this 
house, and brought to me. It was a female bird, and having only one 
bar across the wing, I presume is Pallas’s Grey Shrike.—J. WHITAKER 
(Rainworth, Notts). 
Change of Colour in Birds caused by Food.—In ‘The Zoologist’ 
for July Mr. A. H. Macpherson, in his remarks on the coloration of birds’ 
eggs, refers (p. 251) to an instance of changed colour, supposed to have 
been caused by food, in the plumage of Chrysotis festiva, which statement, 
according to a foot-note, is said to want corroboration. A similar instance, 
which was brought before the Zoological Society of Glasgow, may have 
some bearing on the case. At a meeting of this Society in January, 1888, 
a pair of Red-faced African Love-birds, Agapornis pullaria, were shown by 
Mr. Andrew MacLennan, in which the feathers on the back, as well as a 
number on the head, neck, and shoulders, with two or three of the wing- 
feathers, were in the female bird of a bright canary-colour, the male being 
similarly coloured, but in a less degree. Mr. MacLennan ascribed the 
peculiar colouring to the effects produced by their having eaten cayenne- 
biscuit, which was provided for other birds in the same aviary. In the 
expectation that the birds might become entirely yellow, the same feeding 
was continued, but the birds died, it is supposed, from the injurious effects 
of cayenne.—W. Hannan Watson (Sec. Zool. Soc. Glasgow, 219, St. Vincent 
Street, Glasgow). 
Hybrid between Bernicle and Bar-headed Goose.—In addition to 
the hybrids mentioned in ‘The Zoologist’ (p. 314), the cross between the 
above-named geese is, I think, as remarkable as, if not more so, than any 
already noticed. The parent birds are kept on the ponds of St. Stephen's 
Green,—-that little park so beautifully laid out for the use of the Dublin 
people by Lord Ardilaun,—and where a fine collection of waterfowl is kept 
The Bar-headed Goose was supposed to be a male bird by Mr. Williams, 
who presented it to the Park Committee; but a short time after the little 
Bernicle gander deserted his companion, and, paying attention to the 
attractive Bar-headed Goose, the result was a brood of four splendid young 
birds, now as large as their parents, and far larger than the Bernicle. The 
