74 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



at the risk of being itself swallowed, will ask what would happen in the 

 case of a Bullfinch, with its short blunt beak, if it attempted to feed the 

 young Cuckoo by disgorging seeds from its crop, a process which gener- 

 ally lasts for a minute or more. Here surely is a field for inquiry. 

 Do such birds feed the young Cuckoo (if they ever feed it at all) in the 

 same way in which they feed their own young, or do they alter their 

 habits to suit the occasion, and obtain for the intruder its natural food 

 — insects ? — Allan Ellison (Watton-at-Stone, Herts). 



White-tailed Eagle (Haliaetus albicilla) in Staffordshire. — On Nov. 

 30th, 1905, Mr. Guy Harris, of The Eadfords, Stone, Staffordshire, 

 observed an Eagle at about 12.30 p.m. coming from the south-east. It 

 then circled round for some fifteen minutes, and he was able to observe 

 it carefully through field-glasses. It went away in a westerly direction, 

 and was next heard of at Sandon (about five miles distant), where it is 

 said to have been shot at several times, and eventually, on Dec. 4th 

 last, it was trapped by one of Lord Lichfield's keepers on Cannock 

 Chase. The bird is now being preserved for his lordship, and the 

 taxidermist states that it is a young White-tailed Eagle (a female), and 

 that the measurements are as follows : — " Length from tip of bill to 

 tip of tail, 38 in. ; breadth from tip to tip across the back, 93Jin.; 

 length of flight from tip of wrist to the end of tip of primaries, 28J in. ; 

 length of tail from root of tail to the end of rectrices, 14§ in." He 

 adds : " The bird was very fat, and showed no indications of having 

 been in a cage, and I believe that it is a perfectly wild bird." This is 

 the first authentic record of the occurrence of this bird in Staffordshire, 

 although it is now practically certain that the two Eagles mentioned 

 in Shaw's ' History of Staffordshire ' (1798) were of this species. It 

 may be of interest to refer to my note on this subject, which appeared 

 in the ' Transactions ' of the North Staffordshire Field Club, 1902-03, 

 p. 63. — John E. B. Masefield (Rosehill, Cheadle, Staffordshire). 



Whoopers in Islay. — On Ardnave, a fresh-water loch in the north 

 of the island of Islay, which I visited on Dec. 6th, 1905, 1 saw as many 

 as ninety-eight Wild Swans — I think, all Whoopers. The birds, in 

 brilliant sunshine on the dark blue water, were a beautiful sight. The 

 loch is not half a mile across, and, besides many Gulls and Coots, had 

 on it Mallards, Wigeons, Golden-eyes, Tufted Ducks, Pochards, and a 

 pair of Pintails ; the latter are the first I have seen in Islay, and, 

 according to Mr. Harvie-Brown's 'Fauna of Argyll,' they are rare in 

 the Inner Hebrides. In December, 1900, I saw twenty-seven Whoopers 

 on Ardnave Loch, and I am told some come every winter, but I 



