NOTES AND QUERIES. 145 



them in his rooms at Westminster, and one day the cock bird escaped, and 

 in consequence the hen was liberated, and soon joined him. They found 

 their way through St. James's and the Green Parks to these Gardens, where 

 the owner saw them, and identified the cock bird by the tune he had taught 

 him to whistle. The pair remained in the Gardens all through the bitter 

 winter of 1890-1, and brought off four young ones in the spring, and it 

 was one of these which I saw. I was immediately struck by the size of 

 the bird ; and I cannot help thinking that if any of these had been killed 

 in the home counties, and sent up for identification, P. major would have 

 been recorded as an occasional visitor to this country. — W. H. Tuck 

 (Tostock House, Bury St. Edmunds). 



Buffon's Skua and Bittern in Devon. — The Long-tailed or Buffon's 

 Skua is a rare visitor to Devon, having been obtained hitherto on two 

 occasions only. The last recorded example was shot in June, 1860, on the 

 South Devon coast. In October last two immature specimens of this Skua 

 were obtained near Exmouth, both of which I had the pleasure of 

 examining. On the 14th of the same month a small flock appeared on 

 Thurlestone Sands, South Devon ; several of these were shot, the majority 

 of which proved to be immature birds. A Bittern was shot near Exeter 

 during the first week in November last, and was submitted for my inspection 

 by Mr. Truscott, of Exeter, who had received it for preservation. — W. E. 

 H. Pidsley (Exeter). 



Supposed Hybrid between Song Thrush and Blackbird.— I have 

 recently obtained a bird which may possibly be a hybrid between Turdus 

 musicus and T. merula. It was brought to me in the flesh on Oct. 23rd, 

 1891, having just died in a cage. In July of that year it was taken, with 

 other young birds, from a nest near Bodicote, and it passed to another 

 owner during the early autumn. The other birds in the nest were normal 

 Song Thrushes. One of them, I am told, is living in Banbury now, and is 

 a normal Song Thrush (or as my informant, the late owner of the supposed 

 hybrid, says, " a common Whistling Thresher "), and sings the Thrush's 

 song. The present bird, had, its late owner avers, moulted before it came 

 to him in the autumn (he saw it in nestling dress) ; but its tail being much 

 broken, he pulled out the stumps of the feathers, and a new tail, about an 

 inch long, had grown at the time of the bird's death. I am, however, 

 inclined to think it had never shed its wing-quills, or those of its tail until 

 they were pulled out. The small feathers of the head and body are, no 

 doubt, new, although some of the wing-coverts are still marked. But the 

 late owner assures me its first dress was very dark also, quite as dark as 

 that assumed at the moult in fact. He called it a curiously coloured 

 Thrush ; said it sang beautifully — the Thrush's song ; and when I suggested 

 a relationship to the Blackbird he smiled at the idea. However, when I 

 took it to a birdstuffer to skin for me, and asked him what it was, he looked 



