268 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



tail being a decided blue, the black band of the tail appearing more 

 conspicuous from the whiteness of the tip, and the fawn-colour of the 

 back seeming to have a pink or rose-colour sheen above its sparsely 

 spotted perfection. The man volunteered the information that he had 

 seen it strike down a Wood-Pigeon (Columba pahwibits), and in con- 

 firmation of this extraordinary statement he said he had baited a trap 

 with the Dove, and so secured the Kestrel, which had devoured some 

 portion of the quarry. If the Pigeon had been knocked down by any 

 bird of prey, in all probability it was by the impetuous dash of a 

 Peregrine Falcon ; and as to the Kestrel having eaten any portion of 

 it, the dissection of the supposed murderer proved quite the contrary, 

 as no bird-remains were found in the stomach, but a mass of broken 

 and half-digested legs, elytra, and other hard parts of several beetles, 

 and two or three empty skins of medium-sized lepidopterous caterpillars, 

 too much pressed and torn to distinguish the species ; amongst it all 

 were the lower jaw-bones of some small rodent — Mouse or Shrew — 

 and, what appeared to me rather remarkable, some pieces of flint, 

 parts of which were worn quite smooth, and such as one would expect 

 to find in the gizzard of a gallinaceous species ; had they been small 

 and "gritty," I could have supposed they had been swallowed within 

 the body of some small bird the Kestrel had taken, but their size mili- 

 tated against such a conclusion, as some of the stones were nearly as 

 much in diameter as a threepenny piece. I do not recollect ever 

 finding anything like it in any kind of Hawk before (that is no reason, 

 however, that they do not thus occur) ; but do carnivorous birds require 

 " grit " to promote digestion ? Beyond a broken leg the bird seemed 

 uninjured in any way ; had its plumage been dirty or displaced one 

 might have thought that in its struggles to release itself from the trap 

 it might have picked up the stones, but in such a case I suppose they 

 would have been found in the "crop," and not in the stomach. — G. B. 

 Cokbin (Ringwood). 



Rough-legged Buzzard and Montagu's Harrier in Derbyshire. — 

 On March 11th a Rough-legged Buzzard {Buteo lagopus) was trapped 

 on the moors between here and Sheffield. At the same time there 

 was a Montagu's Harrier (Circus cineraceus) on the same moor, and 

 one or both these birds had been destroying a considerable number of 

 Grouse. The Harrier was shot towards the end of April. — W. Stores 

 Fox (St. Anselm's, Bakewell). 



British Grey Geese. — I have read with great interest the recent 

 articles in 'The Zoologist' (1903, pp. 41-52), and in the 'Field' of 

 various dates, on British Grey Geese, by Messrs. Frohawk, Coburn, 



