248 MISCELLANEA 



change will take place after the first moult, I have given it to 

 Mr. Gill who will attempt to rear it. — William Hall, Falfield 

 House, Washington. 



[This young woodpigeon was successfully reared at the 

 Museum by William Voutt, and lived for more than a year in 

 the aviary. Its albinism was associated, as is often the 

 case, with marked stupidity, and the bird would evidently 

 have perished very soon in a state of nature. Eventually it 

 developed a habit of pursuing and attacking the other birds ; 

 we were obliged to put it in a smaller cage by itself, and here 

 it died in about a week, having apparently refused its food. 

 It occasionally cooed like a wild woodpigeon, and though it 

 remained pure white it acquired the characteristic patches of 

 specialized feathers on the sides of the neck. — E. L. G.] 



The Heron in Northumberland. — From recent observations 

 I am of opinion that, as a feeding ground, apart from its 

 breeding haunts, the Heron frequents the neighbourhood of 

 Alnmouth more than any other spot on the Northumberland 

 coast. I have met with this bird from the Tyne to the Tweed, 

 scarce in the south, more plentiful in the north, but nowhere 

 in such numbers as on that stretch of coast lying between the 

 river Aln and Howick Burn. Here the broad, far-stretching 

 reefs offer a safe feeding place at low tide, and the winding 

 Aln and neighbouring burns in the back country a suitable 

 resort for high tide intervals. It is in these intervals on land 

 that danger is most imminent for the Heron, and from the 

 abundance of the birds near Alnmouth it would appear that 

 some protection is afforded them on the Ducal estates 

 adjoining. 



The ordinary flight of the Heron is familiar to most people, 

 but what is perhaps not so commonly noticed is that interest- 

 ing exhibition they sometimes give when alighting from a 

 great height. On these occasions— only rarely performed — 

 instead of descending in a long incline, or planing round in 

 lowering circles, they change their course suddenly, taking a 



