NOTES AND QUERIES. 427 



that they are probably only captured when the Owl is " hard up " for more 

 palatable and more easily captured prey. 



BIRDS. 



Breeding of the Tufted Duck in Aberdeenshire.— On the 11th of 



August last I was in a boat on Loch Skene, near Aberdeen, for the purpose 

 of looking for the Tufted Duck, Fidigula cristata, which I had been told 

 had bred there for the last three years. I heard also that, shortly before 

 I was there, a female Tufted Duck, with a brood of young in down, was 

 seen to cross a road not very far from the lake, and that one of the young 

 ones was caught, the mother having flown off into some standing corn close 

 by. 1 have little doubt that when disturbed she was leading her young 

 from the breeding-place to the lake for the first time. She called her young 

 to her into the corn. When we were on the lake we saw, first, several 

 parties of Teal and Mallard, both of which breed there. We afterwards saw 

 a Tufted Duck rise from the water, and from her manner as she went off, 

 flying as if wounded for about a hundred yards, and then returning to the 

 same spot and again acting in the same manner, I have little doubt but that 

 her young were on the water, but owing to its being very rough we could 

 not detect them. On another part of the lake we afterwards saw another 

 Tufted Duck acting in a similar manner, and I came to the same conclusion, 

 but we failed to get sight of the young. I learned from the keeper that 

 there were this year five or si.x broods of young Tufted Ducks on the lake, 

 and I have since heard that he saw the first brood on the lake two years 

 ago, and that, now his attention was called to it, he had known the call-note 

 for several years. Besides the two which 1 suppose had young I counted 

 a flock of about twenty-five Tufted Ducks flying high in the air, and several 

 smaller parties which did not leave the lake. — William Bobeer (Cowfold, 

 Sussex). 



[In connection with this subject, on which we have lately received two 

 or three communications, attention may be directed to a short paper by 

 Mr. E. Jex Long, printed in the ' Proceedings of the Natural History 

 Society of Glasgow' for 1880 (vol. iv., p. 53), entitled "Notes on the 

 occurrence of the Tufted Duck, Fuligula cristata, as a breeding species in 

 Scotland."— Ed.] 



Food of the Mistletoe Thrush.— I shall be obliged to any of your 

 readers who will tell me if ihey have ever observed the Mistletoe Thrush, 

 Tiirdus viscivonts, or any other bird, to feed upon the berries of the mistletoe. 

 Although called i|o/3opo? by Aristotle, and viscivorus by later authorities, it 

 seems doubtful whether either name is especially appropriate. Li this part 

 of Shropshire the mistletoe is not common, but I have frequently noticed 

 that the berries on the few plants we have are left to decay even after severe 

 wiuters, when those of hawthorn and holly have all been eateu. Perhaps 



