232 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



AVES. 

 Honey Buzzard in Staffordshire.— I have been fortunate enough to 

 save from oblivion a beautiful specimen of Pernis apivorus. Acting on 

 information received, I visited the cottage of a keeper, and induced him to 

 sell me the bird for my collection. It was shot by this keeper at Little 

 Aston, Staffordshire (within a few yards of the adjoining county of Warwick- 

 shire), on June 16th, 1894. It had been set up and made into one of those 

 idiotic distortions which are so dear to the hearts of the old type of bird- 

 stuffer; but, thanks to the unrivalled taxidermic skill of Mr. F. Coburn, 

 it has now been made into a specimen of rare grace and beauty. Judging 

 by its large size, the specimen was evidently a female, and as there was a 

 large patch on the abdomen denuded of feathers, it was probably breeding. 

 The man said that the bird was on the topmost branch of a tall tree when 

 he shot it, aud there were several large nests about, but they might have 

 been Rooks' nests for all he knew. The bird is of the dark form, the 

 whole of the upper and under parts being of a rich dark brown. I can 

 only find one previous record for this bird in Staffordshire, and none for 

 Warwickshire. Garner, in his ' Natural History of the County of Stafford,' 

 page 271, says, " Shot this summer at Trentham,'' but gives no date ; how- 

 ever, as the book was published in 1844, it may have been in 1843 or 1844. 

 E. Baylis (Stafford Street, Birmingham). 



Long-eared Owl breeding in Essex.— While walking through Pheasant- 

 house Wood, Little Baddow, with my boys, on April 15th, I noticed an Owl 

 flit noiselessly out of a large Scotch fir ; seeing a squirrel's drey or old crow's 

 nest, one of my sons made an inspection, and soon disturbed the other Owl. 

 The nest contained two eggs. We agaiu saw the Owls in the same tree on 

 April 23rd, so trust they may be successful in bringing off their brood. In 

 Miller Christy's ' Birds of Essex ' (p. 155) we read, " I never actually heard 

 of its breeding in the county, except at Harwich, though it has probably 

 done so elsewhere." — Edward A. Fitch (Maldon, Essex). 



Food of the Knot. — In the early autumn the great stretches of sand 

 which exteud along the north Norfolk shore from Hunstanton to Blakeney 

 are the resort of innumerable waders. Knots and Dunlins are perhaps the 

 most abundant of these migratory hosts. The chief food of these two 

 species is a little gasteropod, Paludestrina uIvcb (Pennant), which occurs in 

 countless numbers on these sand-flats. I examined the contents of the 

 stomachs of a large number of these birds last September, and iu every 

 instauce the small mollusc above mentioued composed the principal food of 

 the Kuot. In order to render the identification complete of the Mollusca 

 found in the Knots, I submitted the contents of the stomachs of five in- 

 dividuals killed in September to Mr. Edgar A. Smith, F.Z.S., of the British 



