76 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



roughly speaking, Siberia, and a winter wanderer westward into 

 Europe ; while, strange to say, it is more frequently met with in 

 England than the thick-billed Scandinavian bird. It breeds in the 

 mountainous regions of Europe as far south as the Pyrenees, is found 

 eastward to Japan, and is of casual occurrence in Great Britain. 

 Hartert (?) classes it as a vagrant, and there are about forty authentic 

 records of its occurrence. It inhabits elevated forests chiefly of 

 coniferous trees. The specimen referred to was found in some Scotch 

 firs at an altitude of 460 ft. — Edwd. N. Mennell (The Hostel, 

 Shirley, Croydon). 



Hybrid Ducks. — With reference to Mr. Panton's notes (ante, 

 pp. 33, 34) I may say that in 1912 and again last year a Pochard 

 drake paired with a female Sheld-Duck in Christchurch Park, 

 Ipswich. One young bird was reared in 1912, and two last year, 

 which were all alive and well on Dec. 23rd. They are handsome 

 birds, more like the Pochard than the Sheld-Duck, both in habits and 

 plumage. Mr. Damant, the caretaker of the birds in the park, takes 

 great interest in his charges, and would, I am sure, be pleased to 

 show these hybrids to any naturalist. They are quite tame, and will 

 come for food offered them. — Julian G. Tuck (Tostock Eectory, 

 Bury St. Edmunds). 



Muscovy and Duck. — In Mr. Panton's article on " The Relation- 

 ship of Species," he includes in class C as animals producing sterile 

 young the Duck and Muscovy, and states that in this class hybrids 

 are hard to get. Also, that " tbere seems to be less attraction between 

 the combining animals, and they have to be kept together, and away 

 from their proper mates, before they will copulate." My experience 

 of the Muscovy is that he is a general nuisance, and will copulate with 

 any of the Anatidce at all times, from a tiny call duck to an Egyptian 

 Goose, and also that the results are fertile, judging by the awful mon- 

 grels too often to be seen in our public parks. It may be of interest 

 to state that, at a farm in North Lancashire, Muscovys were nesting 

 on the crossbeams in an empty barn thirty or forty feet from the 

 floor. They were seen to fly through the ventilation holes, and, on 

 investigation, we saw them walking along the beams to their nests, 

 which were situated where two beams crossed. When the young 

 hatched, they were simply pushed off the beam, to fall on the floor, 

 without being damaged, just as Mallard have been seen to do when 

 nesting in a tree. — H. W. Robinson (Lancaster). 



A January Corn-Crake. — On January 27th a strange bird was shot 

 near Oxted in Surrey and sent to me the next day for identification. 



