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THE ZOOLOGIST. 



mains of hen Bullfinch, Robin, Warbler, and one other bird on the 

 ground in the vicinity of the nesting-tree. 



19th. — 7 p.m. Remains of Blackbird and Thrush on the ground. 



20th. — One only of the nestlings heard. Remains of a chicken 

 (size of Partridge), Thrush, and Warbler. The remains are found 

 within a area of fifty yards of the nest. 



No trace of any additional " kills " after this date, and the young 

 were neither seen nor heard again in this particular part of the forest. 

 For a period of not less than twenty-seven days the young were in 

 the nest, and eight days more before finally leaving their birthplace. 



In addition to the seven Pheasants, one Chicken, one Woodcock, 

 two Jays, five Thrushes, three Blackbirds, one Bullfinch, one Robin, 

 two Redstarts, one Chaffinch, and several Warblers already mentioned, 

 there would be a number of other "kills " of which no trace would 

 be found. In the smaller birds under the size of a Thrush, the whole, 

 as a rule, appears to be devoured ; with Thrushes and such like birds 

 the legs are not usually swallowed, and with the larger birds the legs, 

 head, and more or less of the skeleton are left. Most of the feathers 

 are removed from the "kills" before being brought to the nest. — 

 J. Steele Elliott (Dowles Manor, Salop). 



Rough-legged Buzzard in Surrey. — A Rough-legged Buzzard 

 (Buteo lagopus) was shot in W T onersh Park, near Guildford, on Nov. 

 24th, 1909. The bird is a very nice adult male, but not very old. It 

 measures 22J in. long, and 53 in. tip to tip of wings. It is being 

 preserved by Pratt & Sons, the well-known naturalists of Brighton. — 

 G. Herbert Eastwood (Whipley Manor, Bramley, Surrey). 



Little Bittern in Oxfordshire. — A Little Bittern (Ardetta mimtta), 

 with one wing shattered close up to the body, was picked up under 

 the telegraph-wires at Somerton (in the Cherwell Valley), Oxon, on 

 June 27th, 1909. I examined it three days later while it was still in 

 the flesh. The bill was then brown and yellow ; legs greenish 

 yellow. It appears to be adult, and was afterwards carefully sexed 

 and found to be a female. The ovary was to have been sent to me, 

 but bad weather intervened, and it went bad before I could see it. It 

 was said to contain rudimentary eggs of the size of sweet-pea seed, 

 but whether this points to the bird having already deposited its eggs 

 or not I cannot now say. I should have preserved the ovary in 

 spirit, and submitted it to an authority had I been able to do so ; but 

 there is hardly any doubt that the bird would have laid by the end of 

 June if it was going to lay at all, and had a mate. A set of four eggs 

 in my collection, taken by a friend of mine in Spain, was found on 



