144 Birds. 



ever been found in England, when Mr. Yarrell says in his work, "This 

 beautiful heron has now been taken in Somersetshire, Cornwall, De- 

 vonshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, 

 and Lincolnshire. In several of the counties named it has occurred 

 more than once." I have seen two preserved specimens, which have 

 been procured near Penzance : one was shot eight or ten years ago, 

 on the grounds of a gentleman of this neighbourhood ; w^ho tells me 

 that another bird of the same species w^as seen at Hayle a few days 

 after. The other example was shot at Scilly, in the autumn of 1842, 

 and is now in Mr. Rodd's collection in this town. — Alfred Greenwood : 

 Penzance, March 10, 1843. 



Note on the Ring Ouzel. The ring ouzel [Tiirdus torquatus) arrives 

 in considerable numbers on our moors at the end of March ; usually 

 frequenting the rocky hill-sides, but resorting to the neighbouring 

 pastures to feed. It is exceedingly shy, and on being disturbed rises 

 up to a considerable height, and often flies half a mile before it alights, 

 uttering a note something like that of the blackbird. These birds usu- 

 ally build in crevices of the rocks, rarely in low bushes. I once saw 

 a nest. on Thorne Moor, built on the peat of a drain-bank. The nest 

 is formed of coarse grass, plastered with mud and lined with finer 

 grass. The eggs are mostly five in number, of a regularly oval shape, 

 pale bluish green, spotted all over with light brown. The young birds 

 are nearly like the females in colour ; they acquire the adult plumage 

 after the first moult. During the fruit season, the ring ouzels are very 

 troublesome in the gardens on the borders of the moors, and occasion- 

 ally visit those near the town. In July and August they unite in large 

 flocks, feeding on bilberries and other wild fruits until the beginning 

 of October, when they leave us altogether. I have not known a 

 single instance of the ring ouzel remaining here during the winter. — 

 Specimens with white feathers on the head are not of uncommon oc- 

 currence. — John Heppen stall ; Upperthorpe, near SJieffield, March, 

 1843. 



Note on the occurrence of the Bustard near the Lizard Point. I 

 beg to apprize you of the recent capture in this county of a female 

 great bustard, which was observed for many days in a turnip- field ad- 

 joining a large tract of open moor country between Helston and the 

 Lizard Point. In point of dimensions it answers the description giv- 

 en by authors of females ; but I observe that the whole of the neck 

 and fore part of the breast is light bluish grey, the upper part of the 

 head being the same, with a iciw brown marks ; the under parts are 

 not of a pure white, nor are the coverts of the wings, the white being 



