Birds. 4251 



Upupa Epops. Common. 



Merops apiaster. Not rare. I skinned one at Rome. 



*Merops Savignii. Occasionally seen amongst the last-mentioned. 



*Hirundo rupestris. Not uncommon in the Ligurian mountains. 

 When at Nice, in January, on several fine days, I saw some small 

 swallows (like H. riparia), hawking for flies, near the sea. 



Cypselus alpinus. I saw a great many at Palmero, about March 

 26th ; not rare in Liguria. 



*Perdix Francolinus. Not rare in the two Sicilies. 



*Perdix Graeca. Common. 



Glareola torquata. Not uncommon. I procured several specimens 

 in Sicily. 



Otis tetrax. Common in Sicily : I procured two skins. 



Ardea alba. Rare in Sicily. 

 „ garzetta. I obtained one at Naples. 



„ ralloides. I procured two very fine specimens at the 

 last-mentioned place. 



Ibis falcinellus. I saw one flying over head, near Messina, and 

 skinned one at Catania, in Sicily. 



Robert Birkbeck. 



Keswick, Norwich, January 14, 1854. 



Note on two Broivn Eagles. — Two brown eagles, from Killarney, have been in the 

 possession of the Rev. H. B. Knox for the last fourteen years till last Sunday, when 

 the more powerful destroyed his companion, picked off all his feathers, and had eaten 

 the flesh from the breast-bone before his cannibalism was detected. They had been 

 fed the day before with a still-born pig, and appeared completely gorged. Stray waifs 

 of all sorts of dead animals have been constantly supplied as parochial perquisites by 

 the parishioners, and there was no suspicion that they had been underfed. — J. S. 

 Henslow ; Hitcham, Suffolk, February 22, 1854. 



Rough-legged Buzzard killed on the North Tyne. — A pair of these irregular 

 migrants have been procured on the North Tyne during the winter. One was shot in 

 November, and the other caught in a trap, towards the end of January last. — Thomas 

 John Bold; Angas' Court, Bigg Market, Newcastle-on-Tyne, February 7, 1854. 



Carnivorous Propensity of the Great Gray Shrike. — I procured a great gray 

 shrike on the 21st of December last, in the act of carrying a skylark in its feet, which 

 it had flown about with for some time previous to my shooting it. The lark was 

 hardly half an ounce lighter than the shrike. — H. T. Partridge ; Hockham Hall, near 

 Thetford, Norfolk, March 4, 1854. 



Occurrence of the Shore Lark (Alauda alpestris) in Yorkshire.— I have a fine spe- 

 cimen of this rare bird, which was shot at Filey, on the Yorkshire coast, in the early 

 part of March, 1853 ; a second was seen at the same time, but was not obtained. I 



