NOTES AND QUERIES. 29 



means certain that there was not a male bird — in fact, he remained till 

 dark, after shooting the female, expecting its arrival, and spent the two 

 following days in the wood with the same object, and suggests that the fact 

 of there being several people working round the wood (a very small one) 

 might have scared it away. As to the eggs being quite fresh, he says he 

 did not allow the bird time to sit before shooting her. Mr. Noble's third 

 reason — should the bird be an escape — may be of importance as a means of 

 identification. The claw of one of the toes of the left foot is broken, which 

 may have been done by shot, and the inner toe of the right foot is missing, 

 evidently an old injury, as the stump is quite healed. Should such a bird 

 have been missed about the time named, I hope this feature may recall it 

 to the memory of its former owner. The question arises, would a trained 

 Falcon, on obtaining its liberty, construct a nest and lay its complement of 

 eggs unaccompanied by a mate? A female Goshawk has produced eggs in 

 Mr. Gurney's aviary, but of course under circumstances which were not 

 favourable to the construction of a nest. Prof. Newton, however, has 

 called attention to a very interesting passage in Gairdner's edition of the 

 1 Paston Letters ' (see Lubbock's ' Fauna of Norfolk,' edition 1879, p. 2*25), 

 which shows that these trained Falcons were so far sedentary in their 

 habits that, provided the locality were suitable, a liberated bird might be 

 expected to remain and nest. John Paston, writing to his brother in 

 November, 1472, laments that a Goshawk sent him was so injured in 

 transit that " she shall never serve but to lay egges." He therefore pro- 

 poses to " cast hyr in Thorpe wood and a tarsell with hyr," that she might 

 " ever." This seems to indicate not only that the breeding of the Goshawk 

 in the extensive woods which at that date surrounded the city of Norwich 

 was not an unlooked-for event, but also, as Prof. Newton remarks, that the 

 writer had some experience of a similar case ; it will be noticed, however, 

 that he proposed to supply her with a " tarsell." — Thomas Southwell 

 (Norwich). 



Flamingo in Merionethshire.— Early in October last my brother, Mr. 

 M. H. E. Haigh, wrote to me stating that, after a heavy gale from the south 

 on the 26th and 27th of September, he had seen, on the 28th, a large bird on 

 the estuary known as the " Traeth-bach," which, from his description, I had 

 no doubt was a Flamingo (Phcenicopterus roseus). I was, however, unable 

 to come down until the 20th of October, and on the following day 

 succeeded in shooting the bird. It was excessively wild, rising, as a rule, 

 nearly a quarter of a mile off, and flying round the estuary in large circles 

 for quite twenty minutes each time it was put up. We finally got a shot 

 at about ninenty yards with a heavy shoulder gun by allowing the boat to 

 drift with the tide. It was in good condition, and showed no sign of 



