436 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



places that suggested the work of the Kestrel and not the Sparrow- 

 Hawk. I have seen the two smaller species pursued and killed by 

 Kestrels on many occasions. At the end of July, on the moors near 

 Selborne, in Hampshire, I found the remains of a full-grown young 

 Cuckoo under circumstances that left little room for doubt that the 

 slayer had been a bird of prey and not a mammal. Cuckoos, one 

 would imagine, ought to be rather free from the attentions of hawks. 

 — Feedk. J. Stubbs. 



Rare American Teal in Co. Cork. — On Sept. 9th a fine specimen 

 of a female American Blue-winged Teal was shot near Eostellan by 

 Mr. B. Wise, of Maryland. It was exhibited at the meeting of the 

 British Ornithologists' Club on October 17th, but, though agreeing 

 as to the identity of the bird, a doubt was cast on its being a wild- 

 reared bird, because Blue-winged Teal had been bred at Winslow, 

 although no one had heard of any escapes from that collection. It 

 might thus appear that the Club has come to the conclusion that no 

 rare bird obtained in future will be looked on, without doubt, as a 

 wild visitor while any of the same species are kept in captivity. — 

 Bobeet Waeeen (Ardnaree, Monkstown, Co. Cork). 



AVICULTUEE. 



The Crossbill in Captivity.— ' The Zoologist' for 1906 (p. 189) 

 contains a few notes of mine on a tame Crossbill in our possession. 

 We succeeded in keeping him till October 31st last, when he died. I 

 noticed that for a week or two previously he seemed to lose strength, 

 and to be unable to pull his fir-cones to pieces, but he fed well on 

 seed to the last. He had certainly been caged for more than six 

 years, and possibly longer, as when I first saw him in July, 1901, he 

 was in mature yellow-green plumage. Two days after we lost him I 

 saw another in a bird-shop in Ipswich, which was said to have come 

 over from Belgium, and brought him home. The new-comer is at 

 present in perfect health and plumage (yellow-green, like the other), 

 and if he affords us half the pleasure and amusement we derived from 

 our lost pet " Gyp," I shall not regret the investment. During the 

 great immigration of Crossbills last winter I had several opportunities 

 of watching these birds feeding here on larches, and it is most in- 

 teresting to see the same quaint attitudes in a tame bird, for no bird 

 becomes more familiar in confinement than the Crossbill, or more 

 ready to respond to kindness and attention. — Julian G. Tuck (Tos- 

 tock Bectory, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk). 



