450 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



kind, see « The Field,' Sept. 30th, 1876 ; June 4th, 1881 ; and July 1st, 

 1893.— Ed.] 



Grey Shrike and Pomatorhine Skua in Norfolk.— On Oct. 3rd and 

 4th I was fortunate in shooting specimens of these birds on the north coast 

 of Norfolk. The Shrike was an adult male, barred with white on the 

 primaries, the inner primaries and secondaries tipped with white. The 

 Skua was a young male in the intermediate plumage between the adult and 

 bird of the year. The two central tail-feathers projecting only two inches, 

 and with a dark band two inches wide across the upper part of the breast. — 

 A. D. Sapswokth (Woodford Green, Essex). 



Spoonbill in Norfolk. — On Oct. 5th and 6th a Spoonbill visited the 

 marshes and mud-flats in the same district. It was an adult bird, for the 

 pale yellow crest was visible with the aid of glasses, but its extreme 

 wariness would not allow of a nearer approach than 100 yards. — A. D. 

 Sapsworth (Woodford Green, Essex). 



Kestrel taking Young Pheasants.— That the Kestrel prefers fur to 

 feather is now recognised by all but the most obdurate of gamekeepers, 

 although the reproach that the bird will take young game cannot be alto- 

 gether wiped ont. At the time of the hatching of the Pheasants during the 

 late breeding season a female Kestrel was given to me which had fallen a 

 victim to its repeated raids on a young brood. On dissection the justice of 

 the charge was made abundantly clear, and indeed the bird was shot in the 

 act of carrying off one of the brood. I was informed at the time that had 

 it not been shot it would have cleared out the whole brood, although the 

 truth of this information appeared to rest on opinion rather than expe- 

 rience. It is known that Kestrels do "often contract the bad habit of 

 infesting the coops and carrying off the young birds," but Professor Newton 

 says that this evil may easily be stopped, and that " the Kestrel is in the 

 first place attracted to the spot by the presence of the mice which come to 

 eat the Pheasants' food" ( Yarrell, Br. B., ed. 4, i. p. 79). A comparison 

 of Mr. Borrer's account of the Kestrel (' Birds of Sussex,' pp. 12, 13) with 

 that of the late Mr. Knox's ('Ornithological Bambles in Sussex,' ed. 1, 

 pp. 51 — 63) indicates a decrease of the species in Sussex of late years, 

 which the former partly accounts for in the fact of there being fewer oppor- 

 tunities of appropriating the deserted nests of Crows and Pies, since these 

 birds also have decreased.— W. C. J. Ruskin Btjtterfield (St. Leonards- 

 on-Sea). 



Alleged former Nesting of Golden Eagle and Goshawk in England. 

 — Dr. John Hill, the author of several zoological and geological works, 

 whose ' History of Animals ' was published in 1752, gives in vol. iii. of that 

 folio an account of a supposed nest of the Golden Eagle in the south of 

 England 150 years ago, which had the unusual complement of four eggs. 



