NOTES AND QUERIES. 433 



into a most compact ball, in which I could discover no hole for ingress and 

 egress. The number of young was five ; they were about half grown, and 

 eventually got off safely. The young in the first nest I preserved, and I 

 noticed that three out of the four had white tips to their tails. This 

 peculiarity also obtains in the adult Shrew, but not in nearly so great a 

 proportion, at least that is the case in the adult specimens that I have 

 examined, though of course it may be permanent and last through life. — 

 Oxley Grab ham, M.A. (Flax ton, York). 



Greater Horseshoe Bat in Merionethshire. — I have to record the 

 occurrence in Merionethshire of the Greater Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus 

 ferrimi-equinum), on the authority of Mr. Oxley Grabham, who informs me 

 that he took a specimen of this species from a disused mine in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Penmaenpool. I have failed to meet with this Bat myself, 

 though I have paid much attention to the small mammals of the connty 

 referred to. — G. H. Caton Haigh (Grainsby Hall, Great Grimsby). 



BIRDS. 



Macqueen's Bustard in Holderness.— On the 17th Oct. last an 

 example of this Eastern Bustard, Otis Macqueeni, a resident in the Aralo- 

 Caspian regions, and from the Caspian to Yarkand and Altai Mountains, 

 was seen in a vetch-stubble behind the warren-house at Kilnsea, near the 

 Spurn. Colonel White, who rents the house as a shooting-box, fired at it, 

 but, apparently, without in any way injuring the bird. On the following 

 morning it was killed in a wheat-stubble in the parish of Easington, by 

 Mr. G. E. Clubley, a farmer of Kilnsea. Mr. H. B. Hewetson, of Leeds, 

 and I, saw the bird a few minutes after it was shot and while yet warm. 

 I then took the following notes: — Length, 28£ in. Flexure, 16 in.; 

 tarsus, 4| in. Iris, very light straw-colour (not brown, as stated by some 

 authors). Tarsi and feet nearly the same colour (not olive-green). Bill, 

 blackish or slaty, with base of lower mandible yellow ; palate black ; tongue 

 whitish. A peculiarity of the plumage was that the base of the feathers on 

 the back and breast was for about a fourth of their length salmon-pink ; 

 also the down. In a subsequent examination the weight was found to be 

 3 1b. 11 oz. The feathers on the scapulars and nape are shaded cinnamon 

 and buff, vermiculated, and have very conspicuous broken bands of black, 

 one on the latter, and two or three on the former. The three bars on the 

 tail are greyish black, and the tips of the feathers white. Regarding the 

 habits and appearance of the bird, I am indebted to two of our party, 

 Mr. Wm. Eagle Clarke and Mr. Harry F. Witherby, of Blackheath, who 

 were out for a walk, for the following notes, taken with the aid of powerful 

 binoculars, at the distance of about one hundred and fifty yards. On the 

 wing it looked like a big Owl, and was pursued by small birds ; and when 

 it alighted behind a high bank, the Grey Crows hovered above it and 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XX. NOV. 1896. 2 L 



