NOTES AND QUERIES. 355 



believe that those gentlemen, as I am told, " shot right and left at everything 

 they came across"; but that is the conduct ascribed to Messrs. R. M. 

 Barrington, W. B. Barrington, W. G. Williams, G. S. Green, and P. P. 

 Vowells, and one cannot be surprised that when the natives see the law 

 broken with impunity by strangers from the South, they also should set the 

 Wild Birds Protection Act at defiance. The island of Foula is at present 

 for sale, and might be obtained at a very low price. I think an opportunity 

 like this of acquiring an island which contains one of the finest — if not the 

 finest — cliffs in Britain should not be lost. A syndicate of ornithologists 

 would probably be the best proprietors the island could have. — Harold 

 Raeburn (Eastern Road, Romford). 



The Modern Breeds of Domestic Fowl. — A reliable account of the 

 principal modern breeds of the domestic fowl, not too long, and illustrated 

 with figures, has been for some time a desideratum with naturalists. It has 

 been at length supplied by Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier in the current number 

 of ' The Ibis ' (July, 1890). In twenty-four pages, with twenty woodcuts, 

 Mr. Tegetmeier tells us the chief facts in connection with a subject on 

 which a multiplicity of books have been published, but most of which have 

 been written, either for the guidance of poultry keepers or for enthusiastic 

 admirers of particular breeds. Those who belong to neither of these classes, 

 and yet desire information as to the origin and development of the principal 

 breeds of domestic poultry, may now find what they wish to know within 

 the ordinary compass of a magazine article. 



Honey Buzzard in Co. Wexford. — A male Honey Buzzard, Pernis 

 apivorus, was shot on the 27th June last, at Tintern Abbey, Co. Wexford, 

 an unusually dark-coloured specimen of a rich brown colour, the head and 

 neck being light grey. The stomach contained the remains of grass- 

 hoppers. — Edward Williams (2, Dame Street, Dublin). 



Honey Buzzard in Shetland. — A specimen of the Honey Buzzard 

 was shot at Voe of Dale, near Lerwick, on the 10th June last, by Mr. 

 Laurence, of Lerwick. It was a female bird, in very poor condition, the 

 stomach containing nothing but a few insect-larva?, probably those of beetles, 

 picked up under stones on the hillside. This is only the third occurrence 

 of this bird in Shetland, which is certainly a most unlikely place to attract 

 such a woodland-loving species. — Harold Raeburn (Romford). 



Bird-life at Douglas Bay, Isle of Man. — I send you a few notes on 

 the bird-life at Douglas Bay, which I think the more interesting because 

 its shore is lined for almost its entire length by the houses of a town 

 containing a population of 18,000. The bay is crescent-shaped, about two 

 miles across, and has a sandy shore, with a bar of low rocks, uncovered at 

 low water, stretching outside of the sand for most of the distance. The 

 space between high and low tide averages 300 or 400 yards. During the 



