Letters, Extracts, Notices, &^c. 529 
Birds on the Black Sea in Winter. — Mr. Jack Chapman, 
■writing from Souvoraski, at the north-east corner of the 
Black Sea, says : — '' During the whole of the winter there 
are great quantities of Honey-Buzzards here, but what they 
feed on during the very cold weather I cannot understand. 
Crowds of Hen, Marsh, and Montagues Harriers also spend 
the winter here, and are very interesting to watch. So far 
as I can make out, when the ground is soft they live on the 
ants and mole-crickets which are passing the winter just 
under the surface. When it is hard weather large quantities 
of Larks and other small birds collect in flocks near the 
river. It is then very interesting and exciting to watch the 
Harriers. They fly slowly up wind for two or three hundred 
yards ; then turn round and come full speed down wind 
close to the ground, and as they dash through the crowds of 
small birds, catch any one that is unlucky enough to get 
directly in the way. If they fail to kill they repeat the 
performance. They hardly ever follow a bird — I presume, 
because they are not active enough on the wing to catch one 
if they did. However hard the weather, the Honey-Buzzards 
do not seem to trouble about the small birds; but I have 
seen them on occasions follow up a Duck that I have badly 
wounded and eat it when it has fallen, much to my disgust. 
During the autumn great flocks of Hobbies stay here for a 
time, but they all go aw^ay before the cold weather comes. 
There have been a pair of birds here the whole winter that 
I should very much like to know the name of. They are 
Geese, and the whole of the breast is quite red. They may 
be Ruddy Sheldrakes, but, from what I can remember of 
one I shot last year, that bird is no bigger than the ordinary 
Sheldrake, while this Goose, as I presume it to be, is con- 
siderably larger.^^ 
[The Goose is obviously Anser rnficolUs, which is well 
known to visit the Caspian and Black Seas in winter, and 
occasionally to go as far south as Egypt. — Edd.] 
Hybrid between Peacock and Guinea -fowl. — We jire 
indebted to the proprietors of ' The Field ' for the use of the 
