

tiOTES AND QUERIES. 267 



shire also. Lord Lilford wiites that although it passes alohg the Nene 

 valley in considerable numbers on the southern migration, and again in 

 much fewer numbers in May, yet in his experience he never saw a Whim- 

 brel on the ground in Northamptonshire, and he is convinced that on the 

 southern migration they hardly ever alight near Lilford, although he has 

 been assured of a few instances of their doing so in May. The only 

 example actually killed in Northamptonshire which he was able to record 

 was shot at Thorpe Mandeville on May 16th, 1881, as noted by me at the 

 time in the ' Midland Naturalist' (vide " Notes on Birds of Northampton- 

 shire," pp. 309, 310). In Mr. Clark-Kennedy's ' Birds of Berkshire and 

 Buckinghamshire,' p. 143, the Whimbrel is referred to as less common than 

 the Curlew, " but occasionally a specimen is killed on the river [Thames] 

 in spring and autumn." A correspondent also informed the author that 

 "a few specimens of the Whimbrel are seen almost every winter [?] on the 

 banks of the reservoirs here." But as no definite instance of the occurrence 

 of the bird is given with locality and date, we may fairly consider that the 

 work quoted does not afford conclusive evidence of the Whimbrel alighting 

 in the southern Midlands on the autumn migration. The only instances of 

 the Whimbrel being seen on the ground, or being shot in Oxfordshire of 

 which I can give exact dates are the following: — Bloxham, April 29th, 

 1880; Clattercote Reservoir, one seen, May 9th and 10th, 1885 ; Thame, 

 May 21st, 1886. In April, 1859, one was shot at Wormleighton Reservoir, 

 Warwickshire.— 0. V. Aplin (Bloxham, Oxon). 



Shag on Somersetshire Coast.— I am enabled to add the Shag (Phala- 

 crocorax graculus) to the list of Somersetshire birds. A specimen of this 

 bird was killed between Brean Down and the mouth of the Parrett on 

 October 20th, 1892, and is preserved in the collection of Mr. Tucker, who 

 received it in the flesh from the fisherman who shot it. — H. St. B. Gold- 

 smith (King Square, Bridgwater). 



Razorbills and Puffins cast ashore. — In the early part of March last 

 some Razorbills and Puffins, waifs of the sea cast up on the shore, were 

 noticed by the Rev. E. P. Larken about the tide-mark near Boulogne. On 

 the English side of the Channel, at the same time, some Razorbills and a 

 few Guillemots, but no Puffins, were to be seen on the shore in the vicinity 

 of Brighton, starved, as often happens, from a continuance of rough 

 weather, which had driven the fish upon which they subsist too deep down 

 into the sea for diving birds to catch them (cf. Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. 

 Glasgow, vol. i. p. 4). Such birds, if not already dead, are always mori- 

 bund, and I am given to understand, when taken to the Brighton Aquarium, 

 never recover, or at best live but a very short time. To prosper in an 

 aquarium the Alcidce should be netted, and have live fish to eat, for to give 

 them what is not fresh is at all times dangerous* When I was last at 



