NOTES AND QUERIES. 183 



is quite possible that it may do so. The upper Windrush at Bourton is a 

 broad, shallow river, rippling over its stony bed, and a mile or two above 

 this, where it winds away among the Cotswold Hills, I have seen spots 

 which are very suggestive of Dippers. — 0. V. Aplxn (Bloxham, Oxon). 



Bustards at the Zoological Gardens. — The Zoological Society has 

 just obtained four specimens of the Great Bustard, which have been placed 

 in the Eastern Aviary, where it is some time since any were exhibited. The 

 interest attaching to this species is mainly a sentimental one ; it was once a 

 common bird in Great Britain, but the spread of agricultural industry — 

 which has improved away so many of our indigenous animals — has 

 converted the Bustard into an occasional visitant only. So recently as 

 1838, and perhaps even later, the Great Bustard as a resident species 

 finally abandoned this country, the county of Norfolk being its last breeding 

 ground. As in all probability one at least of the four birds at the Zoological 

 Gardens will prove to be a male, visitors to the Gardens may have an 

 opportunity of witnessing a remarkable phenomenon which accompanies 

 its courtship. Many birds comport themselves in a singular fashion at 

 this interesting epoch, and the Bustard expresses its passion in a way 

 which is peculiar to itself. The mouth is furnished with a long pouch, 

 extending some way down the neck ; this is inflated by the bird during its 

 " amatory antics." It is curious and somewhat unexpected to find that the 

 Australian Bustard (Eupodotis) goes through the same performance, but by 

 the help of a different apparatus. There is here no special pouch, but the 

 commencement of the gullet is widened, and appears also to be capable of 

 inflation when the bird is engaged in love-making. — F. E. Beddard. 



Reputed Occurrence of the Pine Grosbeak in Devonshire. — In the 

 last number of ' The Zoologist ' (p. 128) Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun., has 

 again referred to the red male specimen of the Pine Grosbeak in the 

 collection of birds formed by the late Mr. Byne, of Miligan Hall, near 

 Taunton, and which passed into the possession of the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn, 

 of Teignmouth. It is unfortunate that so much attention has been 

 bestowed on this specimen, which has, I think, no real claim to be regarded 

 as a British-killed specimen. So far from being amongst the four or five 

 instances worthy of serious attention, as Prof. Newton considers it (4th ed. 

 Yarrell's ■ British Birds,' vol. ii. 177, 178), to my mind it is one of the 

 most unsatisfactory of all. I do not believe that it was obtained near 

 Exeter, for at the time it is said to have been shot (1854-5) I was living 

 within three miles of that city, and, as I was then quite absorbed in the 

 pursuit of Ornithology, I paid frequent visits to the shop of the bird- 

 stuffer (Mr. James Truscott), who often mounted specimens for me, and 

 always showed me any uncommon bird he had received. Truscott never 

 said anything to me about a Pine Grosbeak having been killed near Exeter, 



