52 the zoologist. 



September. 



1st. A young female Montagu's Harrier, found alive, but 

 desperately wounded, in a field of barley near Thorpe Waterville, 

 and brought to me. Upon enquiry, I found that this bird, that 

 had been haunting the neighbourhood, and was reported to me 

 under various designations, during the last fortnight, was shot by 

 a lout in standing barley on 31st ult. ; he did not take the trouble 

 to look for it, but it was found this morning by a man at work 

 with a mowing-machine, who picked it up, dashed it against the 

 machine, and threw it away. This man told his employer, who 

 found the unhappy bird still alive, put it out of its misery, 

 collected a good many of its scattered feathers, and sent the bird 

 with them to me. This is the first Northamptonshire specimen 

 of this Harrier that I have ever heard of. With reference to the 

 reports to which I have above referred, I may mention that I had 

 been told of a Kite, an Osprey, and a Buzzard, as seen at various 

 times, and by various people, in the neighbourhood of Thorpe, 

 Aldwincle, and Wadenhoe ; and I have not the slightest doubt 

 that all these reports were founded upon the appearance of this 

 Harrier. 



2nd. Mr. W. Edwards told me of having on several recent 

 occasions noticed a Greenfinch near Thorpe, with many white 

 feathers in wing and tail. 



3rd. I observed some half-dozen Herring Gulls circling about 

 high in air, and very clamorous, over Lilford. 



6th. My son shot a young female Sparrowhawk that dashed 

 at one of his dummy Wood Pigeons on a pea-field near Ald- 

 wincle. 



10th. First Wigeon of the season, taken on the decoy. First 

 report of Grey Wagtail at Wadenhoe Locks. Tern, in all pro- 

 bability S. fluviatilis, reported by the decoy-man and others as 

 seen about the river about a mile below Thrapston. 



11th. Whilst following the Bucks Otter Hounds this morning, 

 I noticed that a young Coot, flushed by the hounds from a river* 

 side-spinney near Tichmarsh, was furiously mobbed and pursued 

 by many House and Sand Martins, who kept stooping at it after 

 it settled on the river, at perhaps 100 yards from the spot whence 

 it was first started. 



15th and 16th. I received reports from one of the game- 



