274 THE ZOOLOGIST, 



person who had seen a recently killed specimen of this bird could place 

 any other interpretation on them. The suggestion that Dr. Radde 

 referred to a band of flaming red feathers on any part of the body of a 

 Wild Goose must be instantly dismissed. It is clear to me that Dr. 

 Badde gave his description from a bird which had been dead for several 

 days. The whole of the colours gradually faded from the bills of my 

 five birds, leaving them of a dirty-white colour, but the space occupied 

 by the brightly coloured crescentic-shaped band remained distinct on 

 .the bill for a very long time, and can be faintly traced even now. The 

 most important confirmation of my observations on the colours of soft 

 parts in this bird is that of Mr. Stewart Baker, quoted by me {ante, 

 p. 49), a gentleman who has seen the living birds. — F. Coburn 

 (Holloway Head, Birmingham). 



[We have printed the above letter in deference to Mr. Coburn, but 

 the quotation given by M. Buturlin is not only correctly printed, but 

 was compared at the time and found to be verbatim with the remarks 

 of Kadde. Whether Mr. Coburn is justified in transposing the original 

 words of Radde into more "graceful German, " and then "freely 

 translating" same, is of course an open question. — Ed.] 



Pintail inland in Cheshire. — Shortly after sending you my previous 

 note on this subject {ante, p. 229), I had an opportunity of examining 

 a Pintail drake which was shot on the pool at Toft, near Knutsford, in 

 the spring either four or five years ago. The bird is in the possession 

 of a gamekeeper, who had noticed it for a fortnight or more on the 

 pools at Toft and Norbury Booths before he shot it. He assures me 

 that he used to see the Pintail daily in the company of a Mallard duck, 

 with which it had paired. When the Duck had laid and begun to sit 

 he took the eggs and put them under a hen. The young hybrids 

 naturally showed no trace of their father's handsome plumage, and as 

 they only differed from their companions, some young Mallards, in 

 having nearly white under parts, the keeper did not attach any value 

 to them. Unhappily they were turned down on the pool with the other 

 Ducks, and were shot in the autumn. — Chas. Oldham (Knutsford). 



Note on Shoveler (Spatula clypeata), &c, in Valley of Avon, Hamp- 

 shire. — This handsome species is said to have bred in this neighbour- 

 hood more than once, but I have never been able, from personal 

 observation, to confirm the statement, although I have on several 

 occasions seen some very immature birds, as far as plumage is con- 

 cerned, but none so young that they were unable to fly. As a winter 

 visitor its numbers are rather uncertain ; some three or four years ago 

 I knew of ten or twelve having been killed upon a piece of water of no 



