148 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



on moulting would of course have recovered their power of flight. They are, 

 I fancy, very long-lived birds, as all water-fowl are. An old female Pochard 

 I am acquainted with reared a brood regularly for seventeen years. — 

 E. J. B. Meade- Waldo (Rope Hill, Lymington, Hants). 



Ring Ouzel in Norfolk in Winter.— On the 26th of February, Mr. 

 A.. J. Napier, of Holkham, informed me that he had seen a Ring Ouzel on 

 the 22nd, frequenting the meadow on the Wells and Holkham Road ; that 

 it flew across the road, and alighted on the hedge close to him ; and that 

 on the 26th he had seen the bird in the meadow, close to my house. I 

 went out before breakfast on the 27th of February, with my gun, and found 

 the Ring Ouzel in the meadow within a hundred yards of my study 

 window; the bird allowed me to come within twenty yards, so that there 

 was no necessity for shooting it for identification. It was feeding on the 

 grass along with several Starlings. My cows are turned out on this marsh, 

 and no doubt there are plenty of worms to be found under their droppings, 

 which seemed to have an attraction for the bird, as it was hopping about 

 precisely in the manner of a Blackbird. I may say that, brought up in 

 Lancashire, with the moors and Ring Ouzels close by, I could not be mis- 

 taken in the species. The occurrence of this bird in England in the 

 winter time, and indeed before April, is very remarkable. — H. W. 

 Feilden. 



[The occurrence of the Ring Ouzel in England in winter has been 

 several times noticed in the pages of this Journal. See ' Zoologist,' 1879, 

 pp. 174, 203, 266. See also Mansel Pleydell, ' Birds of Dorsetshire ' 

 (p. 22), and Bull, ' Birds of Herefordshire' (p. 9). The Rev. C. L. Eagles 

 writes that "the Ring Ouzel lives all the year round on the slopes of the 

 Black Mountains " (Herefordshire), and adds, •• I have shot them in winter, 

 and have often found their nests in summer." It was a consideration of the 

 many reported instances of the occurrence of this bird here in winter that 

 induced us, in the ' Handbook of British Birds ' (p. 12), to characterise it as 

 a " resident " rather than a " summer visitor," though we added the remark 

 from personal observation that " in the eastern and south-eastern counties 

 of England it is a spring and autumn migrant." — Ed.] 



Waxwing in Caithness. — We continue to hear at intervals of the 

 appearance of Waxwings in different parts of the country, although not in 

 such numbers as appear here in some winters. In 'John O'Groat's 

 Journal ' for Feb. 21st it is reported that Mr. John Malcolm, sheriff's officer 

 at Wick, captured, during the previous week, one of these birds near 

 Rosebank. — Ed. 



Waxwings in Suffolk. — From fifteen to twenty Waxwings have been 

 shot in Suffolk this winter. In addition to five recorded in 'The Field,' 

 Mr. Travis, of Bury, has had six, of which five were sent in together from 



