6266 



Birds, 



Red and Willow Grouse. — T am much pleased to find that Mr. Newman invites 

 (Zool.6243) Messrs. Doubleday, Bond, Sal mon and Wolley to give their vievs^s on the 

 identity of our red with the willow grouse; by this means the question will stand a 

 good chance of being thoroughly investigated, and an ornithological question of the 

 very highest interest solved. Since my last communication appearing in the ' Zoologist' 

 I have received a private letter from a correspondent, who writes as follows, touching 

 the colour of the wings, &c.: — " I have examined many of these birds (willow grouse) 

 killed in summer, and have found that although the wings are, as you describe them, 

 more or less of a ' tawny brown,' yet the quills are invariably white, and the reason 

 appears to me pretty plain: these quills are moulted but once a year, while nearly all 

 the rest of the feathers are changed twice, if not three times." The same gentleman 

 also states that he has compared the bills of the red grouse with those of the willow 

 grouse, and that larger bills were by no means constant to the latter; indeed he found 

 an old male red grouse with a larger bill than that of our old male willow grouse, 

 which had the longest of the series. These facts, coming from a gentleman of much 

 experience in the matter, I look upon as being of great value. At any rate, it appears 

 I have been in error in describing the colour of the wings of those I flushed in the 

 Dovrefjelds ; still I cannot understand how the wings should appear brown, if the quill- 

 feathers were white; the vibrations of the wings during flight would scarcely account 

 for the appearance. — G. Norman : Hull, October 15, 1858. 



Occurrence of the Marsh Harrier on Pevensey Levels. — Mr. Albert Vidley, of this 

 town, shot on Saturday, October 2nd, in Pevensey Marshes, a remarkably fine speci- 

 men of the marsh harrier (Falco ceruginosus) \ it was in very fine plumage. The crop 

 was very much distended with the remains of a bird, apparently a moorhen. Mr. V. 

 says he has often seen them in the Marshes, but never shot one before. The same 

 indefatigable naturalist brought me to-day, for inspection, a fine lesser blackbacked 

 gull {Larus fuscus)^ shot by one of his father's men, the day before, in Pevensey Bay. 

 — John Button; South Street, Eastbourne, October 12, 1858. 



Occurrence of the Spoonbill near Aldborough. — A white spoonbill (Platalea 

 leucorodia) was shot at Thorpe Mere, near Aldborough, Suff'olk, on the 29th of Sep- 

 tember: it is a young bird ; it measures 36 inches in length, and the bill is inches 

 in length; the crest on the head is wanting; the upper plumage is dull white ; the 

 shafts of the feathers and margins dusky brown, with the shafts and tips of the quill- 

 feathers black. This is the first occurrence of the spoonbill in this neighbourhood for 

 several years: one was shot on the same marsh in 1848; I am not aware of any 

 since. — Edivard Neave ; Leiston, near Saxmundham, Suffolk. 



Occurrence of the Wood Sandpiper near Birmingham. — A specimen of the wood 

 sandpiper {Totanus glareola) was shot a few miles from Birmingham (at Ban), on the 

 26th of August : the bird is a male, and was, by the gentleman who shot it, presented 

 to Mr. Charles B. Hodgson, of this town, in whose possession it now is. I am not 

 aware that this bird has before been observed in this district. — Henry Buckley ; 

 Church Roady Edgbaston, Birmingham, October 15, 1858. 



Occurrence of the Glossy Ibis in Dorsetshire. — One day last week a boatman shot, 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of VVareham, in the meadows opposite the Priory, a 

 specimen of the glossy ibis {Tantalus falcinellus, Penn.): it has been purchased by 

 C. O. Barllett, Esq., of Wareham, and is now in the hands of Mr. Hart, of Christ- 

 ^;hurch, for preservation. It will be remembered that Yarrell records one killed in 



