208 OENITHOLOQY OF CORNWALL. 



that he had shot one somewhere inland in the month of October 

 last, which I had an opportunity of examining afterwards. 



All the species have their two centre tail feathers prolonged, 

 and this prolongation becomes more and more marked in each 

 species the smaller it is ; in the present species, the excess beyond 

 the other lateral tail feathers is from five to seven inches. In 

 the largest species the prolongation is scarcely an inch. 



We have been visited all along the south coast by the Greater 

 Shearwater (Puffinus Major), which comes at uncertain periods, 

 and very often after long intervals. This bird is known at 

 Scilly as the " Hackbolt." The months of December and 

 January gave us two specimens of the Little Bustard, one 

 obtained at the Lizard, and the other near Looe, and kindly 

 communicated by Mr. Stephen Clogg. Every now and then 

 they make their appearance, but I have never known them at 

 any other season than the winter. The male bird presents a 

 very marked difference of plumage from the summer moult. 

 Mr. Yarrell gives figures of the bird, in both summer and winter 

 plumage, in his "British Birds," and Mr. Gould in his "Birds 

 of Great Britain." Although we have had an unusually pro- 

 tracted winter, no rare species of Duck has come under my 

 notice. As the season passed away, we had visits from the little 

 Garganey Teal, on its northern passage to its breeding haunts ; 

 this little duck never appears with us except for a very short 

 time, and in the early spring months. A specimen also of the 

 species of Wild Goose, known as the Grey Lag Goose {Anser Ferus), 

 was captured at Hayle in March. This is the parent stock of 

 our domestic goose, and may at all times be known from its 

 congener, the Bean Goose, Anser Segetum (which is our common 

 wild goose) from the nail of the bill being white, which is black 

 in the Bean Goose, and from the colour of the bill being 

 otherwise difi'erent. 



I will conclude my notes by giving you the substance of a 

 communication I made to Mr. Newman, in vindication of the 

 character of the Ash-coloured Harrier {Circus Montagui), which 

 I have before referred to. 



"Montagu's Harrier." — I have before mentioned that the 

 frequent occurrence of this species in the West of Cornwall, 

 and especially in the Lizard district, has rendered it not only 

 a common bird, but decidedlj' the most common of all the 



