ttOtES AtfD QUERIES. 435 



porarily deposited by their owner, Capt. F. H. Salvin, at the Gull-pond in 

 the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, nested there, and a young one was 

 hatched and reared. — Ed.] 



Short-eared Owl in Hampshire in Summer.— Some eight years ago 

 (Zool. 1885, p. 434), I called attention to the occurrence of this species 

 upon an extensive heath-land in south-western Hants in the month of May. 

 During the past very hot and dry summer I was informed that two birds of 

 the same kind frequented the same heathy moorland. I gave little credence 

 to the report at the time, but at the end of July one was killed, and on the 

 24th of August another was caught in a pole-trap. The former was very 

 pale in colour, possibly a female, beside being much mutilated and decom- 

 posed ; but the latter was a dark-plumaged male in good condition and 

 perfect feather. I am not prepared to say that either of these were the 

 birds reported in the earlier part of the season, but their occurrence upon 

 the dates named is very early for this locality if they were migrants. 

 I have been unable to obtain any evidence of the species nesting in the 

 neighbourhood. Although this bird usually rests on or near the ground, 

 and seldom settles on the branch of a tree, yet the situation in which the 

 male was secured (namely, in a pole-trap) is a proof that it avails itself— at 

 least occasionally — of an elevated perch, and in this case, were it not for 

 the trap, it might have proved an advantageous "look-out" from which to 

 watch for prey. On dissection, I found no mammalian remains in the 

 stomach, but an almost entire carcase of a hedgesparrow and the head and 

 legs of a " titlark," together with a few small larvae, and fragments of 

 Coleoptera, the latter possibly from the stomachs of the small birds. The 

 robust and well-conditioned body indicated that the bird in question had 

 provided itself with a sufficient supply of food, wherever it might have 

 fared, and in this respect it differed from the general appearance of 

 migrants on their first arrival, especially if the journey was a long one. 

 Whilst on the subject of Owls, it may be of interest to note that during 

 the past summer I knew of two localities, some miles apart, where Long- 

 eared Owls successfully reared a brood, and in one instance I had the 

 pleasure of seeing an old bird feeding two fluffy youngsters as they sat 

 upon the branch of a tree, looking almost like two balls of grey down. 

 They were being regaled upon fragments of Yellow Bunting. — G. B. 

 Corbin (Ringwood, Hants). 



FISHES. 



The Tunny in the Solway Firth,— When engaged in preparing a 

 report on the fishes of the Solway Firth for embodiment in the ■ Fauna of 

 Lakeland,' I was unable to decide whether the Tunny, Orcynus thinnus, 

 should or should not be included. William Borrowdale, of Glasson, one 



