384 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



carter"; and perhaps the occurrence of white or light-coloured birds 

 amongst their sable relations is no great rarity. About the middle of 

 May last I saw a Rook, about three-parts grown, of a uniform creamy 

 or rather dirty-white colour, except a- pale brown patch about the size 

 of a shilling on the left side of its head, including the ear-covert ; its 

 legs and toes were white, and the beak very ivory-looking ; its eyes 

 were pink and apparently sightless, as is often the case with an albino 

 (or at least my experience points in that direction), and its immaturity 

 was indicated as much by its size as the feathered condition of the base 

 of the beak. The plumage was both ragged and dirty, the bird having 

 been kept in confinement for some fortnight or three weeks previous to 

 its death, and I suppose at the time of its capture it had been crippled 

 in some way, as the little girl to whom it belonged told me she threw 

 her hat after it and knocked it down, and that its appearance amongst 

 the other young Rooks was noticed as soon as it was able to leave the 

 nest and get out upon the branches. — G. B. Corbin (Ringwood, Hants). 



Little Owl (Athene noctua) in Bedfordshire. — Bedfordshire is with- 

 out doubt indebted to the late Lord Lilford for the addition of this 

 nowadays resident species to our local fauna, who, after several years' 

 perseverance, succeeded in establishing this species at Lilford, where 

 in 1889 a pair were found with eggs, and other pairs were afterwards 

 recorded from year to year nesting around that locality. In 1889 there 

 is a doubtful record of one killed at Meppershall, in Bedfordshire, some 

 thirty miles distant from Lilford, in the south-east of the county. In 

 1893 two were obtained at Woburn and Millbrook, in South-west Bed- 

 fordshire. In the spring of 1894 it first appeared at Chawston, in the 

 north-east corner of the county, and from that time appears to have 

 made a stronghold of this neighbourhood. The unusual number of 

 old pollard elms that may be seen in the locality is probably the secret 

 of its rapid increase there. In 1897 several were obtained in various 

 other parts of the county, including Turvey, on the west border, and 

 at Cranfield, a few miles further south. In 1898 increased numbers 

 were sent in to the local taxidermists, two of which, shot at Sou thill 

 and Chicksands Priory, were said to be birds of the year ; one was also 

 caught in a brick-trap in a cottage-garden at Lidlington. In 1899 and 

 1900 localities from which they are reported became more and more 

 general. Luton, in the extreme south, is now first included in the 

 latter year. In 1901 a nest of four young ones was safely reared from 

 a nest at Green End, Great Barford, and also another nest was said to 

 have been successfully reared off in another locality. A female killed 

 at Southill, May 22nd, from along the roadside, was nesting at the 



