434 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



marked the place for its pursuers. It flew low and slowly, just skimming 

 the land. In colour it looked isabelline in body, and conspicuously black 

 and white in wing. In walking it carried the head and neck like a feeding 

 Pheasant, and appeared to spend its time in feeding, washing and preening 

 itself. It walked in a stately fashion, but not with head erect, though 

 sometimes, when alarmed, it stood with neck and head erect, and on the 

 alert, the long black feathers on each side of the neck being very con- 

 spicuous. It was fired at several times, and on being flushed never went to 

 any great distance, flying leisurely and heavily to about one hundred yards 

 and then alighting. An examination of the bones on dissection proved it 

 a young bird, and a male ; it was very fat. The crest-feathers were not 

 fully developed, white at the base and then black. The stomach was filled 

 with vegetable matter, chiefly the heads (buds and flowers) of rag-wort 

 (Scnecio aquations) and fragments of beetles of the genus Carabus. Mr. 

 Clarke and I dined off the body ; the flesh was very dark and tender, and 

 we came to the conclusion that it tasted like Wild Goose with a savour 

 of Grouse. Macqueen's Bustard has occurred three times in England, all 

 on the East coast, and in October, The first in 1847, on the wold near 

 Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire ; again, on Oct. 5th, 1892, near Marske, 

 N.E. Yorkshire ('Naturalist,' 1892, p. 373; Zuol. 1893, p. 21); and, 

 lastly, the subject of this notice. The bird is at present in possession of 

 Mr. Philip Loten, of Easington, by whom it has been admirably set up. — 

 John Cordeaux (Easington, Oct. 20). 



Purple Gallinule in Hants. — A specimen of the green-backed species 

 of Porphyrio was killed on the banks of the Avon on Sept. 15th, no doubt 

 an escaped bird, for the man who killed it remarked that it appeared to be 

 very tame, and one of its wings showed signs of scissors having been used 

 upon it, although it was said that his shots had cut the feathers off. I am not 

 aware that any such water-fowl are kept in this immediate neighbourhood, 

 and yet I do not think the bird could have got upon the wing to have flown 

 here.— G. B. Cohbin (Riugwood, Hants). [See Zool. 1894, p. 427.— En.] 



Cream-coloured Courser in Wilts. — I beg to record a recent instance 

 of the occurrence of Cursorius isabellinus in Wiltshire. It was shot by 

 Mr. George Bovill on October 10th, on the downs above Earlestoke, that is 

 to say, on the north-western edge of Salisbury Plain, and within a very 

 short distance of the spot where Mr. Langton killed another specimen at 

 Elston, near Tilshead, on October 2nd, 1855 (see 'Zoologist' for 1855, 

 p. 4913). Mr. Bovill obligingly informs me that the bird was running along 

 the down, but got up and flew as he approached it, when he shot it on the 

 wing. It seemed tired, as if after a long flight, and it is probable that it had 

 been blown across by the heavy gales which prevailed from the south-west 

 for two days previously. It is singular that a second Wiltshire specimen 

 of so rare a visitor to our shores should be met with in the same locality as 



