NOTES AND QUERIES. Ill 



these birds which had evidently met their death in this way, and I think 

 roost of them had broken necks like those found by Mr. Coward. — J. H. 

 Gurney (Keswick, Norwich). 



Stone Curlew in Lincolnshire in Winter.— A specimen of the Stone 

 Curlew [(Edicnemus) was shot by a labourer in the parish of Marsh 

 Chapel, on the 30th January last. It was in good condition, in spite of 

 the extreme severity of the weather. — G. H. Caton Haigh (Grain shy Hall, 

 Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire). 



Waxwing in Leicestershire. — A specimen of this bird was shot near 

 the village of Laughton, in this county, on Feb. 13th. I did not hear of 

 its occurrence before the bird had been sent for preservation to a bird- 

 stuffer in Leicester, and am therefore unable to state any particulars us to 

 its sex, or food. — A. Matthews (Gumley, Market Harborough). 



Blackbird marked like Ring Ouzel.— In 'The Zoologist ; for 1893, 

 p. 189 ; is a notice of an old male Blackbird marked with a well-defined 

 crescent-shaped patch at the upper part of the breast near the throat. I 

 have seen this bird constantly here ever since, until the beginning of the 

 present year 1895, and the pale marking had increased iu distinctness. I 

 fear that some mischance has happened to this bird, as it has not been 

 visible among the numerous birds of many kinds coming daily to be fed 

 on my lawn during the long severe past frost ; there is, however, in its 

 place, a hen Blackbird marked exactly iu the same way. She has been 

 about here since last summer. — 0. P. Cambridge (Bloxworth Rectory, 

 Dorset). 



Gray-lag Geese breeding in Nottinghamshire. — The Grey-lag 

 Geese, Anser ferus, come to our shooting-quarters in Norway on or about 

 April 1st, and generally speaking have laid and are sitting by May 1st. 

 The eggs from which my geese at Annesley were reared were taken during 

 the last week in April, 1889, and I myself set them under hens. They 

 took twenty-eight days hatching, and the young were very easily reared. In 

 March, 1894, they all took their departure, and when I returned from Scot- 

 land T discovered two of them sitting on the island in the pond, about half-a- 

 mile away. They each in due time hatched four young ones, and they are 

 all now well and strong. I have never got them to cross with the tame 

 geese, although they are always together. I have seen them crossed in 

 Scotland, but mine never do so, although they have every opportunity, as 

 for some years I had a wild gander alone with tame geese, and I also had 

 a wild goose for several years alone with my tame geese. I consider that 

 the Scotch wild Gray-lag differs somewhat from the Norwegian bird, though 

 not to any great extent. Two facts strike me as curious, namely, that they 

 laid their eggs and were sitting a month earlier than they would have done 



