NOTES AND QUERIES. 



151 



and Gannets certainly do prey upon small ones with impunity, but 

 in this case a larger one than usual had been captured, judging from 

 the part of it which is still visible in the bird's open mouth. It 

 appears that other birds besides Gannets have met with a similar 



fate, for in the ' Zoologist ' for 1894 (p. 265) there is an account of a 

 Great Northern Diver being choked by a Gurnard, and on p. 308 of 

 a Cormorant which was choked by a Flounder. — -J. H. Gurney 

 (Keswick Hall, Norfolk). 



Hybrid Ducks. — Eeferring to the three Pochard and Sheld-Duck 

 hybrids (ante, p. 76) at Christchurch Park, Ipswich, I saw them 

 again on March 4th. They are, I should say, a drake and two ducks, 

 and will probably be the only ones bred, as the Sheld-Duck appears 

 this year to have paired with a drake of her own species. It was 

 rather interesting to watch them on the water, the Pochard keeping 

 near the other two, but at a respectful distance, while his old mate 

 seemed entirely to ignore him, and to be quite happy with her 

 partner. — Julian G. Tuck (Tostock Eectory, Bury St. Edmunds, 

 Suffolk). 



Early Arrival of the Stone Curlew. — On the night of March 11th, 

 on which occasion the moon was very bright, the moat close to my 

 daughter's home at Eougham was visited by a bird which could only 

 have been a Stone Curlew (CEdicnemus scolopax). The note was 



