58 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



A fox on Howpasley was suspected of a liking for lamb, and its earth was dug 

 up. Besides a quantity of Grouse, Black-game, Partridges, Ducks, Curlew, 

 Plover, Rats, Voles, and Lambs, the earth contained no less than seventy- 

 six dead Short-eared Owls. Eight of these were old birds, and the remainder 

 unfledged young. Of course, the nests of the Short-eared Owls being placed 

 on the ground amongst the heather and long grass, the helpless young 

 would fall an easy prey to a prowling Fox. One could hardly have suspected 

 that Owls would have had any serious enemy except man himself. — Robert 

 Service (Maxwelltown, Dumfries). 



Bange of the Mediterranean Herring Gull, Larus cachinnans. — 

 Mr. Backhouse, in his ' Handbook of European Birds,' quoting Mr. Seebohm, 

 writes of this yellow-legged species :— " Resident in the Mediterranean and 

 Black Seas, and ranges eastward through the Caspian and Aral Seas to Lake 

 Baikal and the valley of the Amoor." But he makes no mention of its 

 occurrence on the Atlautic seaboard. It may therefore be worth while to 

 report that while we were coaling in quarantine at Madeira, on the 8th 

 September, 1892, 1 had good opportunities all day of observing a little flock 

 of yellow-legged Herring Gulls, which appeared to get their living chiefly 

 from the leavings of ships putting in there. Also that on the 28th June, 

 1893, in the beautiful bay of Vigo (again, alas ! under the yellow flag), 

 a number of these gulls, young and old, were feeding on the bread, banana, 

 orange-peel, and other debris thrown overboard after lunch, and enabled me 

 to watch them at my leisure at close quarters. The yellow legs are very 

 noticeable in the adult, but in the immature birds the legs are flesh- 

 coloured. The cry was similar, to my remembrance, to that of our English 

 Herring Gull. — 0. V. Aplin (Bloxham, Oxon). 



Green Woodpecker pursued by Sparrowhawk. — A few days before 

 Christmas ray gamekeeper was surprised to see a Green Woodpecker fly 

 towards him, and pitch upon the trunk of a tree near which he was 

 standing, without showing the slightest fear of his presence. It was 

 closely pursued by a Sparrowhawk, which would doubtless have seized it 

 had it not caught sight of the keeper and sheered off. Curiously enough, 

 that very week the same man saw another Green Woodpecker chased by a 

 Sparrowhawk. One would have supposed that the rapid undulating flight of 

 a Woodpecker, now rising, now falling like a dart, would have quite baffled 

 a hawk. — J. C. Mansel Pleydell (Whatcombe, Blandford, Dorset). 



Barred Warbler in Yorkshire. — An example of the Barred Warbler, 

 Sylvia nisoria, was shot at Kilnsea, in Holderness, by Mr. G. E. Clubley, 

 on the 13th November last, making the third reported occurrence of this 

 species in that district. The first was obtained at Spurn by the Rev. H. H. 

 Slater on the 28th Aug. 1884 (Zool. 1884, p. 489), and the second at the 

 same place on the 19th Oct. 1892 (Zool. 1892, p. 424). It was first added to 



