NOTES FROM MID-HANTS. 295 



I do not view the three heads which I have drawn (figs. 2, 3, 

 and 4) in the light of very old birds, but rather as birds of super- 

 abundant vigour which have thrown out an excess of yellow 

 colour; as a cock Brambling will occasionally assume a black 

 throat, or a cock Sparrow a chestnut breast, or a Kose Pastor a 

 reddish head. Guillemots and Razorbills have been observed 

 occasionally to have yellow beaks,* which, however, may arise 

 from a deficiency of the normal colouring matter, albeit de- 

 scribed as being bright yellow in freshly-killed specimens. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM MID-HANTS. 



By Sutton A. Davies. 



After I had sent in my notes for 1892 (Zool. Jan. 1893), 

 a Barred Woodpecker, Dendrocopus minor, was shot at St. Cross 

 in the last week of December ; and in the same week a Great 

 Grey Shrike, Lanius excubitor, was shot at Chilbolton, and sent 

 to Mr. Chalkley's to be set up. I saw the bird, which showed 

 the white bar on primaries only, and therefore was probably the 

 L. major of Pallas. 



January, 1893. 



On the 9th, a male Tufted Duck, Fuligula cristata, was shot 

 in an osier-spinney at St. Cross, and soon after another came into 

 Mr. Chalkley's hands from Winnall. On the 12th, two Curlews, 

 Numenius arquata, were shot at Alresford. The keeper at Fisher's 

 Pond saw a Pochard, Fuligula ferina, on the 29th; he also 

 informed me that he had observed two lots of wild geese, Anser 

 sp. ?, that winter, numbering seven and four respectively, a small 

 flock of Golden Plover, Charadrius pluvialis, and a very large 

 wisp of Snipe, from fifty to sixty birds in all. Teal had been 

 scarce on the pond this winter, but Mallard fairly plentiful. One 

 Woodcock only was killed. The Rev. P. H. Owen, of Colden 

 Common, informed me that he had heard the metallic note of the 

 Brambling, and had seen a small flock of Golden Plover passing 

 over. Partridges were paired by the 31st, and at the end of the 



* Cf. Kruper, ' Naumannia,' 1857, p. 437 ; Newton, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 2 ; 

 and Pike, ' Zoologist,' 1877, p. 57,— Ed, 



