Notes. 143 



at the eastern, or to be more accurate, north-eastern, end of Winterbourne 

 Stoke, between the Devizes Eoad and Fargo Plantation was broken up 

 into arable land there was removed from about the middle of the field 

 to the side of the highway, where it now is, the base of a cross. Whether 

 before or after its removal I know not, but evidently, at some time the 

 shaft or what then remained of it, was taken away a mile or so further 

 northwards up the road and used to mark a grave at the cross road, where 

 the track from Shrewton and Kollestone (for the boundaries of these 

 parishes runs down its centre) to Netheravon crosses the Devizes Road. 

 The stone being " rather in the way," was removed to a point some 

 40 yards eastwards on to the down, which now belongs to the Army 

 Council. I do not know and have never been able to ascertain, whose 

 grave this was, but it is traditionally the grave of the incumbent or curate 

 of Kollestone, who hanged himself. I have for some time been trying 

 to get the base of this cross removed to Winterbourne Stoke Churchyard 

 for safe custody. 

 Fargo Plantation was planted by the grandfather of a friend of mine. It 

 is at the western boundary of Avebury, and was called " Fargo " because 

 the carters said it was far to go. This may seem a doubtful derivation 

 but I have every reason to believe it to be the true one. 



J. J. Hammond. 



Little Owl. An example was shot by a keeper near Avebury in 

 November, 1907, and is now preserved in the Marlborough College 

 Museum. 



Marlborough Coll. Nat. Hist. Soc. Report for 1907, p. 76. 



Little Bustard at Avebury. A male Little Bustard (Otistetrax) 

 in summer dress was shot at Avebury April 26th, 1909, and was sent 

 by Mr. F. Deakin, The Lodge, Avebury, to be set up by Mr. Lucas, 

 of Devizes. The range of the Little Bustard is Southern Europe, 

 Algeria, Tunis, Messopotamia and India. It is only an occasional visitant 

 to Central or Northern Europe. Harting says that about forty occur- 

 rences are on record in the British Isles. 



The chief point of interest in the capture of this bird is that it was shot 

 in mid-April, whereas all the English records have occurred in the 

 autumn or winter, unless we except — a specimen in summer plumage, 

 in the British Museum, said to have been killed in Norfolk — as set forth 

 in Gray's list (part iii.), and alluded to in The Zoologist, p. 2242. 



Mr. F. Deakin writes: — "The bird was shot on Weedon. There is a 

 dew pond on the top of the hill, and the bird pitched within 200 yards 

 of it. I was going round the sheep and heard a very peculiar noise over 

 my head. On looking up I could see it was a rare bird. I turned my 

 horse round and fetched my gun and I happened to meet the keeper, 

 J. Buckingham, who looks after the game on this farm. The bird being 

 very wild I asked him to take the gun and I rode round the brow of the 

 hill and attracted its attention while the keeper crept up the hill and shot 

 it at 62 yards off. " 



E. P. Knubley. 



