428 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Alnwick, and marked by attaching a piece of metal round the leg, on which 

 was stamped " N. 91." One of these was shot in the park by Earl Percy 

 on the 31st October last. Only three Woodcocks were seen, so that the 

 migratory birds had, apparently, not yet arrived. — E. G. Wheeler (Estate 

 Office, Alnwick Castle). 



Notes from Sussex. — A Pomatorhine Skua, immature, was shot at 

 Bexhill, Sussex, lately, while chasing gulls ; it is a very dark bird. A 

 female Spotted Crake was shot while swimming in the marshes near 

 Appledore, Kent, on the 4th November. While staying at Burwash, Sussex, 

 on the 1st May last, a man who had been felling timber at Brightling Park 

 gave me a clutch of four Woodcocks' eggs he had taken about three weeks 

 before ; he had never seen any before, nor had any of his companions. — 

 G. W. Bradshaw (Robertson St., Hastings). 



Honey Buzzard in Co. Wexford. — On the 22nd October last I received 

 a bird of this species, which had been shot in a wood in the immediate 

 vicinity of the town of Gorey. The entire plumage is of a dark chocolate- 

 brown colour, showing scarcely any light edges to the feathers. The bird 

 proved to be a male, and the stomach was filled with wasps, both perfect 

 insects and larvae. — Edward Williams (2, Dame Street, Dublin). 



Supposed occurrence of the Purple Heron in Lancashire. — An 



example of this species has been recorded from "Alderley Edge, Lanca- 

 shire," by Mr. J. Pickin (Zool. 1887, p. 432), which record is repeated in 

 the new edition (1892) of Mitchell's * Birds of Lancashire,' and in all the 

 reviews of that book which I have seen, as the first known instance of the 

 occurrence of the Purple Heron in Lancashire ; but the addition to the 

 county list is a spurious one, for Alderley Edge is in Cheshire, and 

 about seven miles from the Lancashire border. — Chas. Oldham (Ashton- 

 on-Mersey). 



Tufted Duck in Norfolk. — Kindly allow me to correct an error that 

 appears in Mr. Gurney's notes (p. 399). In the third paragraph, line 13, he 

 states that I saw seven Tufted Duck at Ranworth Broad. This should 

 have been printed Wroxham Broad. — T. E. Gunn (Norwich). 



Bee-eater in Co. Wicklow. — On the 2nd November, Mr. John 

 Graydon, of Delgany, shot a specimen of the Bee-eater, Merops apiaster, 

 out of a flock of six which were resting iu the centre of a snipe-bog some 

 distance from that place. The bird came into my possession immediately 

 afterwards, and proved to be a bird of the year and a female. The stomach 

 contained the remains of three different kinds of flies and a few beetles. — 

 Edward Williams (2, Dame Street, Dublin). 



Peahen assuming the Male Plumage. — At a meeting of the Linnean 

 Society on Nov. 3rd, Mr. G. N. Douglass exhibited the train of a Peahen 



