NOTES AND QUERIES. 185 



of very fair skins. I may add that it is possible to make beautiful skins of 

 the frozen (and thawed) Willow aud Black Grouse, &c, purchased in the 

 markets and shops, and I feel sure that these specimens could be set up 

 months after they were killed in such a manner that it would be impossible 

 to tell that they v"?re not mounted from perfectly fresh specimens. Many 

 of the game birds, having been snared, have no blood marks, and are often 

 not soiled u in the least, as each bird is sent over in a separate paper bag ; 

 this, at least, is the case with Willow Grouse from Norway. So there is 

 now an additional reason for suspecting the origin of Pine Grosbeaks and 

 other northern birds said to have been killed in this country. In the early 

 spring of 1886 the Rev. H. A. Macpherson obtained some examples of the 

 Northern Bullfinch (Pyrrhula major) in one of the London markets, the 

 skin of one of which is, through his kindness, now in my possession. A 

 celebrated naturalist once told me that some years ago a Great Black 

 Woodpecker was received in the flesh at Oxford, with a statement to the 

 effect that it had been killed in some well-known Berkshire woods close to 

 the city. The food found inside it caused some excitement among entomo- 

 logists, for the stomach was found to be crammed with large ants of a 

 species the existence of which in Great Britain had long been suspected, 

 but up to that time had never been proved. Many of the insects were 

 therefore mounted. Fortunatelv, however, for Natural History, the real 

 truth was soon discovered. Picus martins had picked up those ants in a 

 Norwegian forest, and had not left that country alive. — 0. V. Aplin 

 (Bloxham). 



Bittern in Devon. — I think a mistake was made about the Bittern 

 recorded as a Little Bittern in ( The Zoologist ' for March (p. 105), on 

 account of my referring to it as a Bittern 10 or 12 inches high, and not 

 naming the particular species. On looking at the plates in Morris's 

 f British Birds,' I find that it is undoubtedly a Common Bittern and not a 

 Little Bittern. Moreover, Mr. Pidsley, who is writing a book on the 

 Birds of Devonshire, sent me some measurements of the Common Bittern, 

 to which this bird corresponded. — H. Woollcombe (North Grange, 

 Exbourne, N. Devon). 



Peregrine and Moorhen in Devon. — About a fortnight ago a female 

 Peregrine Falcon, in moult, was killed, with a full-grown Moorhen in its 

 claws, at Ash, near Monk Okehampton, Devon. — H. Woollcombe. 



[The Peregrine and Moorhen were kindly sent for our inspection by 

 Mr. Rowland Ward, to whom they were forwarded for preservation. — Ed.] 



Wheatear in North Lincolnshire in March. — With reference to 

 Mr. J. W. Harrison's note on the Wheatear in Lincolnshire in March 

 (p. 144), — namely, on the 23rd, — the earliest occurrence I have been able 

 to record subsequent to 1871 was on March 19th, 1879,— a single bird 



ZOOLOGIST.— MAY, 1890. P 



