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THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Thrush nesting on the Ground. — On the 13th May I saw four 

 Thrush's eggs in a slight depression on the ground under a hedge, with no 

 nest except a lew oak-leaves. The eggs were quite warm ; and so they were 

 three days later, when I saw the bird fly from them. I did not take any, 

 because I wanted to give them every chance of being hatched; but on 

 the 18th they had disappeared. — F. H. IIirley (Dorman's Land, East 

 Grinstead). 



Plumage of the Tufted Duck. — When passing through the Metro- 

 politan Market on January 15th I found to my surprise a male Tufted 

 Duck, Fuligida cristata, in which the forehead was sprinkled with white 

 feathers. The late Mr. Yarrell recorded a female Tufted Duck, in which 

 the forehead was "speckled with white like the adult female of the Scaup." 

 I examined two female Tufted Ducks at Lewes in which the forehead was 

 white ; these birds were known to be eight years old. An adult female 

 living in the collection of the Zoological Society at present has likewise 

 this variation ; but I am not aware that the male Tufted Duck has been 

 recorded to exhibit this Scaup-like tendency. Since the foregoing was 

 written, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., has pointed out to me that the assumption 

 of a white forehead by the Tufted Duck is not necessarily a sign of old age, 

 since " there is a very young Tufted Duck in the Wolley Collection at the 

 Norwich Museum, which has a white face." Mr. Gurney adds that a female 

 Tufted Duck in his collection, shot on August 8th, shows a trace of the white 

 forehead. Perhaps Mr. Whitaker, whose opportunities for studying the 

 Tufted Duck have been so exceptional, may be able to throw further light 

 upon this point. — H. A. Macpherson. 



Plumage of the Kestrel.— In ' The Zoologist' for 1883, p. 496, I com- 

 municated the result of some observations made by my brother and myself 

 on the plumage of the young Kestrel, and it was there implied that the tail 

 of the adult female was rufous with dark bars ; this I find is not exactly 

 correct. Since the above note was written I have obtained two specimens, 

 both females by dissection, in which the tail has a strong tinge of blue. 

 One specimen has the upper tail-coverts blue, with a faint tinge of the 

 same colour on the tail, the other has the tail so decidedly washed with 

 blue that the ground colour might be called blue rather than rufous, 

 although there is still a rufous shade. In both birds the tail is barred in 

 the character of the younger and rufous-tailed female, instead of having the 

 upper aspect clear blue, with the exception of a broad subterminal dark 

 band as in the adult male. I may add that the dark bars on the tail of the 

 adult male are only seen when the feathers are spread or reversed ; they 

 exist on the inner webs only, and gradually disappear with age. In a very 

 old pale specimen in my possession these dark markings are obsolete in 

 some of the feathers, and appear in the shape of spots in others. To return 

 to the adult female: in my opinion fully adult birds always possess more 



