204 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



next day for preservation. I sent a competent person over to 

 Kettering at once to make enquiry about this bird, and obtained 

 the following details : — It was shot by a man in the employ of 

 Mr. Northen, tenant of Oakley Lodge, who had noticed it about 

 all the afternoon of 24th inst. " Through the dense fog, it did 

 not go away far ; so he sent one of his men across the field 

 gently, as the bird could see him, and he crept up close to it 

 under the hedge, so shot it through the neck, and broke one 

 wing." This bird, as Mr. Field informed me, was a female, and 

 measured 3 ft. 4 in. in total length, 8 ft. in expanse of wings, and 

 weighed about 8 lbs. It was eventually obtained for preservation 

 by Sir R. de Capel Brooke, the owner of the farm upon which it 



March. 



4th. Female Pintail on our decoy, 

 llth. Two Stock Doves' nests in the park with eggs. 

 10th. I heard from Mr. J. Evans, of Bourne, that he had 

 received, for preservation, on June 13th ult., in the flesh, a male 

 Honey Buzzard, killed by one of the gamekeepers at Milton, near 

 Peterborough. This specimen is now in the Peterborough 

 Museum. 



23rd. Under this date, Mr. H. O'Brien wrote from Blather- 

 wycke, " I saw four Great Crested Grebes on our pond to-day, 

 and think that this must be their first appearance since the great 

 frost." 



26th. Having been informed by Mr. W. Tomalin of the occur- 

 rence of a Honey Buzzard near Syresham in 1874, I wrote for 

 particulars of the occurrence to the woodman named to me by 

 Mr. Tomalin, and to-day received the following reply : — " Salcey 

 Forest, March 25. I beg to say, in answer to your letter, that 

 the Honey Buzzard was pulled out by me in the Crown Woods, 

 near Silverstone, in this county, in September, 1861. On seeing 

 the wasps unusually busy one morning about 8 o'clock, I went 

 near the nest to ascertain the cause. The whole of the combs 

 were scratched out, and there was a hole nearly the size of a bee- 

 hive. On seeing the tail of a bird, I put my arm in, and drew out 

 what proved to be a very fine specimen of the Honey Buzzard. 

 I sent the bird to a man named Dickins for preservation, but- 

 having been badly stalled, after about ten years it crumbled to 



