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NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



Scarcity of the Squirrel in Somerset. — Sciurus vulgaris has been 

 gradually decreasing in numbers in this county for the past eight or 

 nine years. I remember when they were abundant in the woods 

 around here, especially in those on the southern slopes of the 

 Mendips where oak and hazel were, and are now, plentiful. A 

 noticeable feature is, but of course it may merely be a coincidence, 

 that the Tawny Owl has during the past few years become 

 commoner, and one may almost say abundant, while certainly with 

 truth in some districts the Squirrel has gradually become scarcer, 

 until at the present day I believe it to be totally extinct in the Wells 

 district of Somerset. The Tawny Owl was formerly rare, but has 

 become abundant owing to the fact that gamekeepers and gunners 

 have been educated to the truth respecting the food of this nocturnal 

 species. — Stanley Lewis (Wells, Somerset). 



A VES. 



Hobby in Buckinghamshire. — An adult Hobby {Falco subbuteo) 

 which, from its plumage, is probably a bird of the previous year, was 

 killed on August 23rd last at Lavendon. I could not learn from the 

 gamekeeper who shot it that he had ever seen this species previously, 

 but at that time of the year I hardly think it would be a " passage " 

 bird. — J. Steele-Elliott (Dowles Manor, Salop). 



Baer's Pochard (Nyroca baeri) in Notts. — About the middle of 

 April, 1911, a man saw three Ducks on the Trent and killed them 

 with one shot. He took them to a taxidermist of Nottingham, who 

 gave him sixpence each for them ; taking one to be a variety of the 

 Tufted Duck, he preserved it for me, eating the others which loere 

 Tufted Ducks. When I saw it I said it was a Ferruginous Pochard. 

 He cased it and I placed it in my collection where several visitors 

 saw it, but it was not till one day in July last that the Hon. Gerald 

 Legge (a great authority on Ducks) informed me it was a very rare 

 bird (Baer's Pochard), only one other having been killed, and that at 



