486 



NOTES. 



Note on Specimens of Wiltshire Birds recently- 

 purchased for the Society's Museum. The Society's 

 Museum at Devizes has been enriched by the addition of a number of 

 cases of birds, together with a few mammals, all taken at various places 

 in the county of Wilts. They were acquired by purchase at a sale, held 

 in April last, at Salisbury, of the effects of the late Mr. Cookman, who 

 for forty years had been managing clerk for Messrs. Waters cfc Eawlence, 

 auctioneers, and having a taste for curios, antiquities, and objects of 

 natural history, used to pick up these things at the different sales which 

 he attended. It is not probable, therefore, that a single one of the 

 specimens mentioned in these notes was shot by himself. It is said 

 that he made the sale catalogue himself before his death ; if so, it may 

 be taken that the descriptions are correct, with a single doubtful ex- 

 ception to which reference is made below. These recent acquisitions, 

 which are all in a good state of preservation, include the following 

 specimens : — A male Marsh Harrier (Circus aruginosus) feeding a 

 nearly full-grown young one on the remains of a snipe, the record stating 

 that it was shot by A. Powell, Esq., on the Hurdecott Estate. A 

 beautiful ashy blue grey male Montagu's Harrier (C. cineraceus) with 

 the following legend on the label, " I had this bird in the flesh, shot 

 near Winterslow, Wilts, 1858," but there is unfortunately no clue to 

 the identity of the writer of the label. One case contains a pair of 

 Common Buzzards {Buteo vulgaris), as well as single specimens of the 

 Pole Cat (Putorius fcetidtis), Stoat (P. Ermmeus), and Weasel (P. 

 vulgaris). The label states that the Buzzards came from Savernake 

 Forest, so the " vermin " were probably captured in the same locality. 

 There are also under a glass shade, a pair of Pole Cats, " captured in 

 the Castle-Street meadows in 1855." These meadows are situate be- 

 tween the top of Castle Street, Salisbury, and the village of Stratford-] 

 sub-Castle. The Pole Cats show very well the dark brown tint above 

 and black below, the face being variegated with dark brown and white 

 markings. The head of the female is much smaller than that of the 

 male. There is a well-set-up specimen of a Rough-legged Buzzard 

 {Archihuteo lagopus), also shot by A. Powell, Esq., on the Hurdecott 

 Estate. A pair of Peregrines (Falco peregrinus), the smaller of which 

 is an immature bird with transverse breast markings, are stated in the 

 sale catalogue to have been shot at Bulford, while the label on the case 

 reads, "Male and female, shot on the Wardour Estate, 1875." But the 

 difficulty is that this estate does not extend to within many miles of 

 Bulford. It requires one with more local knowledge that the writer to 

 be able to say if these two statements can be reconciled, or to know 

 whether these birds were found on land belonging to some descendants 



