24 THE ZOOLOGIST, 



[We may add, also, the following extract from Bewick's ' British Birds,' 

 in the article " Peacock ": — " The females sometimes assume the plumage 

 of the male ; this is said to take place after they have done laying, A bird 

 of this kind is preserved in the British Museum." — Ed.] 



The Spotted Crake in Scotland.— A specimen of this species was 

 reported as captured near Moffat at the beginning of November. It is a 

 bird of extremely secretive and skulking habits, and therefore it is generally 

 supposed to be much rarer than it really is. Its nest has been found 

 occasionally in Annandale, and the bird has been met with in that dale far 

 oftener than in the other two Dumfriesshire dales. There are a few records 

 for Galloway, to which I can now add another in an undoubted example of 

 this species seen in a clover-field in the neighbourhood of Maxwelltown 

 late in October last. — Robert Service (Maxwelltown, Dumfries). 



The Sheldrake in Captivity. — Can any reader of ' The Zoologist,' who 

 is interested in ornamental waterfowl, tell me whether the following plan 

 has ever been tried, by which tame Sheldrakes might be allowed to fly, 

 without straying away ? T propose next year, if I have any more young ones 

 hatched out, as soon as they can fly, to clip the feathers of one wing, and 

 to keep on clipping them as needed until the birds are paired. Then to 

 pinion the duck, but to allow the drake to fly. I think the drake, once 

 paired, would not desert the duck, and one might enjoy seeing him flying 

 about without fear of his straying away. I am not sure whether these birds 

 pair when two or not till three years old ; in the latter case it would be 

 rather a long time to wait. I write to enquire whether anyone has ever 

 tried this plan, and if so, whether it has been successful or not. I may 

 say that this year I had three Sheldrakes reared from the egg; one was 

 killed by a fox, and the other two, as soon as they could fly well, finally 

 went away altogether, as I believe they always do if left unpinioned. — 

 H. C. Hewitt (14, Park Street, Cambridge). 



Bitterns in Wilts. — Two specimens of the Common Bittern were shot 

 in the meadows at Trafalgar in South Wilts, in February of last year, as I 

 learnt by a letter from Lord Nelson, who kindly wrote to inform me of the 

 fact; and, just a month before, I received a letter from Mr. Walter 

 Bouverie, telling me that, to his regret, a Bittern was shot on his property 

 at Little Cheverell in North Wilts, by a lad in his employ, on January 19th. 

 Almost every year I receive tidings of one or more Bitterns having been 

 killed in various parts of the county, and the colder the winter the greater 

 is the number of Bitterns which visit us ; for 1 take it for granted that 

 though there may be, and have been, rare instances of this bird still breed- 

 ing in England, the great majority of those seen in this and other counties 

 are stragglers, which, driven by stress of weather from their own haunts, 



