386 THE ZOOLOGIST, 



poor Ciconla alba reached me nearly dead. It refused to take bread in any 

 form. After a time, however, I induced it to take the bodies of small birds 

 and strips of lean beef. Fat it did not like, and shook and munched a 

 strip of meat which was half fat and lean until the fat was removed. It 

 munched the bodies of birds between its mandibles, commencing always at 

 the tail end and finishing at the head ; when it seemed satisfied that it had 

 broken all bones and killed its prey it was swallowed, always head first. It 

 did not discover that a large basin contained water until I threw a bird's 

 body in ; the splash caused it instantly to seize at the body, but when it 

 found its bill was in water it loosed the body and drank eagerly, expanding 

 its gular sac and scooping the water down its throat. After satisfying its 

 thirst it manifested its pleasure by standing in the basin on one leg, looking 

 exceedingly droll. After it had become somewhat accustomed to me and 

 its surroundings, and had had plenty of food, it became playful with some 

 of the food I gave it, as a cat would play with a mouse, and while 

 munching the body of a bird made a clattering noise with its bill. It 

 seemed much puzzled at the number of stuffed birds in the cabinets by 

 which it was surrounded, and seemed glad to get away from them. It 

 particularly singled out and seemed frightened at a large Herring Gull which 

 was on the ground floor of one of the cabinets. On the fourth day of its 

 captivity I noticed that it was much out of condition, and next morning 

 I found it dead. I am afraid there may have been something on some of 

 the bodies from my work-rooms which did not agree with it. The post 

 mortem revealed a shot-wound along the neck, which had torn the skin 

 but not entered the flesh. On the same side of the bird a shot had struck 

 at the base of the wing, but had not splintered the bone ; the end of the 

 same wing also appeared to have been struck by a shot. From these 

 appearances I conclude that the bird had been shot at from below at a long 

 range and struck, but not with sufficient force to bring it down at once. 

 Eventually it alighted, and its companion would have remained with it 

 until it regained full use of its wing, but they were discovered by the man 

 who captured it. I do not think there is anything improbable in the man's 

 story. Garner has recorded the occurrence of Storks in the neighbouring 

 county of Stafford in his day; while Mr. Willis Bund has noticed their 

 appearance in Worcestershire and Oxfordshire ; this, however, is the first 

 record for Warwickshire. The bird is quite a young one, with dull-coloured 

 bill and legs, a frosty white appearance on the black feathers of the wings, 

 and dark centres to the feathers of the back and scapulars. — F. Coburn 

 (7, Holloway Road, Birmingham). 



Red-necked Phalarope and Skuas near Hastings. — On Sept. 24th 

 I had brought to me, in the flesh, an immature male Red-necked Phalarope 

 [Phalaropus hyperboreus), shot while swimming in the sea at Pett Level ; 

 weight one ounce. It is almost exactly like the one I recorded in ■ The 



