Ornithological Notes. By George Bolam. 359 



white feathers showing upon the head, was killed near the same place. 

 Both of these birds were broaght to me soon after being killed, and are 

 now in my possession. 



In the month of February of the same year, another male, in very 

 nearly adult plumage, was killed near the mouth of the Coquet at Wark- 

 worth, and preserved for Mr Pape by Robert Duncan of Pilgrim Street, 

 Newcastle. About the same time adult Smews were seen and captured 

 on the Solway, and in various other parts of the country. 



On 18th January 1892, an immature bird was killed on the Tweed near 

 Berwick, by Robert Patterson ; and on the following morning the same 

 person shot another near the same place, also in the first plumage. Both 

 of these catne into the possession of Mr Wm. L. Miller, who very kindly 

 presented one of them to me. 



In the female or young state, the chestnut colour of the upper parts of 

 the head and neck contrast very strikingly with the pure white of the 

 chin and throat, and the line of demarcation is very sharp and distinct. 

 The feathers are also very short and of a fur-like texture, which gives to 

 the head and neck of the bird a very strong resemblance to the body of a 

 Weasel. Col. Montagu has remarked this likeness, and tells us that in 

 the south of Devonshire the birds are upon this account known as 

 ' Vare-Wigeon,' — Vare in that part of the country being the common name 

 given to the Weasel. 



Turtle Dove. Turtur communis, Selby. 



On 19th August 1889, I received from the Earl of Tankerville a very 

 fine specimen of a young Turtle Dove, in the first plumage, which had 

 been shot by one of the keepers at Chillingham on the 16th of that month. 

 It had been noticed about the Park for a few days before it was killed, 

 and on one occasion Lord Tankerville thought he saw about a dozen of 

 the birds together in a field on Chillingham Barns farm, but they rose on the 

 other side of a high hedge, and from the cursory glimpse obtained of them, 

 his Lordship could not be quite positive about their identity. The same 

 keeper saw another near Trickley Wood on 18th May in the following year. 



Dr Stuart tells mc that he noticed one, feeding in company with a 

 flock of Pigeons, upon a newly sown field of barley, near Chirnside, in the 

 spring of 1887; and in Duncan's shop in Newcastle, I examined a beauti- 

 ful male, in full plumage, which had been killed out of a fiock of fourteen, 

 on 21st May 1888, about five miles north of that city. Mr Duncan fre- 

 quently has them sent to him for preservation, from the neighbourhood of 

 Newcastle, and thinks the species is increasing in numbers in the north. 



In the " Naturalist " for 1886, page 342, Mr Riley Fortune of Alston 

 House, Harrogate, in a note upon " The Turtle Dove in Yorkshire," dated 

 27th September 1886, says : — " Last year I found them nesting in fair 

 numbers in the neighbourhood of Alnwick, Northumberland, on 26th 

 July ; and this year they have also been seen, in the same county, near 

 Chathill, which will be recognised by many as being the nearest station 



