392 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



offer a reward for every young Skua which the natives can show in the 

 nests on a certain fixed week each year, and let a competent ornithologist 

 visit Foula annually on that week and distribute the money. It is obvious 

 that the reward for each bird must exceed the market value of the egg. — 

 Ii. M. Barring ton. 



The Great Skua on Foula.— Mr. W. J. Williams, of Dublin, requests 

 me to state that he had nothing to do with the shooting on Foula. He 

 states that, besides the two Great Skuas, only a few other birds of several 

 different species were killed by his party. In my note of last month 

 (p. 354) I expressed my disbelief in the reports of wholesale destruction 

 told of the party ; one has always to allow for exaggeration in these cases. 

 But we cannct expect the people of Shetland to draw fine distinctions as to 

 number ; and if one wishes to escape blame in a case of this kind, the only 

 plan is not to infringe the Wild Birds Protection Act at all. — Harold 

 Raeburn (Romford). 



Introduction of Ptarmigan into the Faroe Islands.— Herr H. Miiller, 

 the well-known ornithologist, has at length been successful, after a series 

 of disappointments, in introducing the Ptarmigan into these islands. His 

 son Rasmus sent twenty birds from Greenland to Thorshavn via Copen- 

 hagen, which arrived there on June 9th, and were immediately liberated on 

 the hills about two miles from Thorshavn ; and Herr Miiller writes me, on 

 August 22nd, that a pair were observed in the same locality the previous 

 day with a brood of eight or ten young ones nearly able to fly, showing that 

 they had taken well to their new locale. — J. J. Dalgleish (Brankston 

 Grange, Alloa). 



A Long-tailed Tit feigning Death. — In November last year I shot at 

 a Tit (Acredula caudata) at the top of a larch of moderate size, and broke 

 a wing and a leg. As it came tumbling down it caught a bough with its 

 foot and clung, fluttering. A kick at the tree-stem caused it to let go its 

 hold, and it fell lower; but, catching a second twig at about 15 ft. from the 

 ground, it remained hanging again, and presently became as if dead. 

 Kicks at the tree-stem were now of no avail, so I concluded that it was 

 dead and remained suspended, owing to the natural contraction of the 

 muscles. Getting three sticks of about 2 ft. long, I commenced to throw 

 at the bird, hoping to knock it off or break the twig. Two of the sticks 

 became entangled and lodged in the tree, the thicker one about 2 ft. from 

 the bird. A second throw with the third stick struck close to the bird, and 

 the poor creature, which so far had shown no perceptible movement, now 

 gave way, and came screaming to the ground. — L. W. Wiglesworth 

 (Castlethorpe, Stony Stratford). 



The Young of the First Brood assisting to feed the Second Brood. 

 — On August 10th I noticed some Swallows (Hirundo rutiica) taking food 



