NOTES AND QUERIES. 61 



Sussex coast during the late frost, with their respective measurements. 

 An adult male Goosander, in splendid plumage, with very rich salmon- 

 coloured breast, was shot at Havant on Jan. 8th. The shooter said 

 it looked like a ball of fire coming towards him. Scaup with us have been 

 the commonest of ducks. We have had some splendid males killed on our 

 Sussex coast; also Mallard, Tufted Duck, and Merganser. A female 

 Velvet Scoter was picked up alive in Mill's Terrace, West Brighton, in an 

 exhausted condition after the severe weather. Snipe and Jack Snipe have 

 been unusually abundant throughout Sussex, and several have been picked 

 up dead. Teal, Brent Geese, Knots and Godwits have been shot on and 

 near the river Adur. Bramblings and Wood Larks have occurred in small 

 flocks. Most of the birds obtained appeared to be in good condition. We 

 have taken weights of a few of the Ducks for you as follows : — Goosander, 

 male, 31bs. 13oz, ; Scaup, adult male, 21bs. Hoz. ; ditto, 21bs. 3oz. ; ditto, 

 21bs. 4oz. ; ditto, young female, 21bs. loz. ; Velvet Scoter, female, 

 lib. lOoz. ; Mallard, male, lib. 13oz. ; Merganser, male, lib. 7oz. ; Tufted 

 Duck, male, lib. 12 oz. — Pratt & Sons (Brighton). 



English and Irish Jays. — As I am in want of a few Jays (both English 

 and Irish) for purposes of comparison, might I ask readers of * The 

 Zoologist," who live in parts of the country where these birds are plentiful, 

 to kindly send me one or two specimens, the receipt of which will be at 

 once acknowledged. — G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton (Trinity College, 

 Cambridge). 



Lapland Bunting in Lincolnshire.— The Lapland Bunting, Plectro- 

 phanes lapponicus, has appeared this winter on the Lincolnshire coast in 

 considerable numbers. I first met with a flock at North Cotes on Dec. 

 21st, but they were so excessively wild that I was unable to identify them 

 with certainty on that account, or to shoot a specimen. On the following 

 day, however, with a south gale and heavy rain, I found the flock feeding 

 under shelter of the sea-bank, and killed four at a shot, and shortly after- 

 wards another single bird near the same place. This flock numbered from 

 twenty to thirty birds, but subsequently I found many small parties of from 

 two or three to half a dozen, scattered about amongst flocks of Larks in the 

 vicinity. I saw this Bunting frequently up to Jan. 4th, the first day of the 

 recent severe weather. On that day we had a violent easterly gale, with 

 ten degrees of frost and a little snow. I saw at once that the Lapp 

 Buntings had received a considerable accession to their numbers, and there 

 must have been quite one hundred of them on the coast. I did not visit 

 this locality again until the commencement of the thaw on Jan. 9th, and 

 then saw two single birds only, both of which I shot. Since that date I 

 have gone round all their old haunts several times without seeing a single 

 individual. Probably the hard winter had driven them further south. 

 W T hile here they frequented grass land and young wheat ; also the heaps of 



