28S THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



1)6611 procured of late years, two in the west, and one in the centre of the 

 county. The first of these was an immature bird, shot by Mr. C. Haddon, 

 of Taunton, in company with another j?outleman,on 17th October, 1S65, at a 

 place called Ham Sea Wall, half a mile west of Stoiford, near Bridgwater. 

 This Crane was observed feeding in the centre of an extensive pasture in 

 company with some bullocks, and by keeping behind one of these, and 

 driving it gradually towards the bird, Mr, Haddon and his friend succeeded 

 in stalking and shooting it. Another, a very fine adult, was shot a little 

 distance from the same s])ot, at Country Sea Wall, one mile to the east of 

 Stoiford, by Mr. Kichard Chilcott, of Bridgwater, on 5th Dec, 1^89 (Zool. 

 !I89U, p. 7o). This was a very fine specimen, and was beautifully set up 

 by Mr. Bidgood, Curator of the Taunton Castle Museum, and is now in 

 the possession of Sir Alexander Acland Hood, Bart., at St. Audries. The 

 third Somerset Crane, also an adult, wassliot in the parish of South Brent, 

 and we extract the note we communicated to the 'Zoologist' respecting it 

 (Zool. 1S79, p. 128) : — "Having heard a report that a farmer living in the 

 flat had, not long since, shot a Crane, I called on him to gather what 

 information he could give on the matter. The Great Western Eailway 

 runs through the Great Mid-Somerset level, and where it is crossed by 

 lanes, these approach it by artificially constructed mounds supporting the 

 bridges over the line, locally termed ' tips.' All the bridges, lanes, and 

 tips are jirecisely alike, and it was with some difficulty, and not till after 

 one or two blunders, that I at last obtained the ' correct tip,' which 

 bronght me to Wick Farm, in the parish of South J5rent, the abode of Mr. 

 AVilliam Harris, who was reported to have shot the Crane. Finding him 

 at home, I received from him the following information : — One evening in 

 May, 187"), just as it was getting dusk, he saw a large bird alight in a 

 field near his house. He went home for his gun, and returning found the 

 bird in the same place, and succeeded in getting near enough to shoot it. 

 It was very dift'erent from what we call the Common Crane, he said (meaning 

 the Common Heron), and was altogether a strange-looking bird. The top 

 of its head was red, and the feathers of its tail were like those of a cock ; 

 and he proceeded to give me a very good description of an adult Gnis 

 cowmunis. Asked what he had done with the bird, he replied that, 

 not knowing it was of any value, he had given it to his labourere, and that, 

 since then, some of his neighbours had very much blamed him for not 

 having had the bird preserved." 



A male was killed at Buckland Monachonim, on the borders of Dartmoor, in tlie 

 autumn of 182(), and was preserved in Drew's collection at Plymouth (E. M., Trans. 

 Plvm. Inst. 1830; Eowe's Peramb. Dartmoor, 1848, p. 231). Mr. E. H. Rodd says of 

 this bird : — " A solitary Crane which for some time frequented the banks of the river 

 Tamar, which divides Cornwall from Devon, was, after several ineffectual attempts to 

 secure it, at length shot on the Devonshire side of the river, near Buckland Muna- 

 chorum, and is preserved in my collection. This was in the autumn of 182(5, since 

 which time I have not heard of the occurrence of any other example of this bird iu 

 either De\ on or Cornwall " (' Birds of Ci)inwall,' p. 12i)). It is presumed that Mr. Rodd 

 obtained his specimen from Mr. Drew ; but iu the collection of the late Mr. Marsh- 

 Dunn, of Teignmouth, there is a Crane which was purchased at the sale of Mr. Bolitho, 



