NOTES AND QUERIES. 271 
shot. October is not often a period of the year when young Pheasants 
are much in evidence, and on dissecting the hawk the separated 
limbs, hands and all, of a Mole filled the stomach, and its last 
mouthful—still in its throat—was the empty, velvety skin of this 
peculiar mammal, and it was interesting and remarkable how 
cleanly all the flesh had been extracted, even to the skull. The Great 
Crested Grebe is by no means a common bird in Hants, but one 
came to an untimely end in rather a curious manner. One dark 
night in November a rural postman was returning with his load to 
the office, when suddenly a large bird (attracted, I suppose, by the 
light on his bicycle) flew against him with great force, and, being 
thus knocked down, the bicycle ran over and broke the bird’s neck. 
It was sent to me for identification, with the query, ‘‘ We think it is 
a Puffin.” 
Near a river-keeper’s house are a number of semi-wild Ducks, 
which nest somewhat freely, but during the past two years it was 
noticed that the broods of ducklings gradually decreased without any 
very visible cause; Jackdaws, large Pike, and Rats were alike blamed 
for the depredations. This season, however, the Rats did not appear 
so abundant and troublesome as they had in previous years; still the 
ducklings disappeared. It had been remarked by men who were 
about in the very early morning that for the past two springs a large 
Heron, always alone, was often seen in the meadows somewhere 
near, but immediately cleared off on observing anyone, not to be seen 
again till the following dawn. On closely watching him he was 
found to be the culprit, and at last was shot, with a whole fluffy 
duckling in his capacious throat. The man who shot it said he had 
never seen so large a bird, or one in such grand plumage. It seems 
rather strange he was not suspected long before he was killed. 
Some time ago a person inquired if I had a Thick-knee (Hdicnemus 
scolopax) I could show him amongst my few birds, as he had heard 
and read that the species was not rare in the valley of the Avon from 
Christchurch to Salisbury. I had heard such a report previously, 
but, speaking of this immediate neighbourhood, I think a mistake 
has been made in identification, and some other species must be 
intended. In a measure I am ignorant of its occurrence farther 
north, in the vicinity of Salisbury, where the down-lands seem more 
suitable to its requirements than the damp low-lying meadows be- 
tween Christchurch and Fordingbridge, and the specimens I have 
seen here are few and far between. The remark as to its numbers 
may be far more fittingly applied to the Redshank, which is certainly 
