NOTES AND QUERIES. 107 



last, and a Peregrine Falcon in Tothill Wood, on the 2nd January, both in 

 the neighbourhood of Louth. They have both been preserved by Mr. Kew, 

 taxidermist.— Henry F. Allison (Beckingham, Lincoln). 



Kestrel chasing and killing a Bat. — On the 15th November last, 

 about noon, I was crossing Ranmere Hills ; it was a sunny day, and my 

 attention was suddenly drawn to a Kestrel soaring high over Dorking Wood. 

 It hovered and wheeled as if in the act of making a swoop at some kind of 

 prey on the bare open field below the wood. While I stood watching it 

 I saw what at first sight appeared to me to be a bird of some kind circling 

 round and round over the Kestrel, though much higher in the air. Then 

 all of a sudden the Kestrel gave chase, and what I supposed a bird I soon 

 discovered to be a great Bat, Vespertilio altivolans. I called the attention 

 of an acquaintance who happened to be passing at the time, and we both 

 watched the Kestrel and Bat over the little valley, well known to Surrey 

 ramblers, leading from Ranmere Church to Box Hill or Mickleham. The 

 poor Bat seemed sorely puzzled, wheeling and darting in all kinds of zig-zag 

 courses, the Kestrel following in keen pursuit. Once it almost came to 

 ground, but instantly and rapidly again mounting high in the air, took a 

 sort of dodging or tumbling course, and seemed to give the Kestrel a good 

 deal of trouble. At last the Kestrel, gaining considerably on its intended 

 victim, made one eager and determined swoop ; the poor Bat, giving one 

 despairing, shrill squeak, was seized by the Kestrel with its talons, and so 

 carried away to Norbury Park. — Charles Criddle (Gamekeeper to the 

 Rt. Hon. George Cubitt, M.P., Dorking). [Communicated by the Rev. H. 

 Benson, Farncombe Rectory, Godalming.] 



Variety of Great Tit. — A rather pretty variety of this species was 

 shot near Nottingham in November last. The head and throat, which are 

 black in normal specimens, are in this bird bronzy brown ; breast pale 

 yellow; primaries cream-colour, shoulders grey, tail sandy. The bird 

 was so badly shot that only a skin, and that a poor one, has been made of 

 it; but as vars. of this Tit are rare I am glad to have a skin, and though 

 I have the Coal and Long-tailed Tits in my collection of varieties, I have 

 as yet never been able to get a variety of the Blue Tit. — J. Whitaker 

 (Rainworth, Notts). 



Kittiwakes inland in Surrey. — The keeper brought me the other day 

 a dead Kittiwake, which he had picked up near an ornamental piece of water 

 in this parish. On examination the crop and stomach were found to be 

 quite empty, proving that the bird had died of exhaustion. On the same 

 day another Kittiwake was found in this neighbourhood in a very feeble 

 condition. These birds had evidently been driven inland through stress of 

 weather ; but it seems odd that they should have starved when we consider 

 the mildness of the season. Flocks of Gulls and Common Terns often pay 



