7844 



Birds. 



nests, and that although each of the four birds of the preceding year has been shot or 

 otherwise destroyed. What is almost as remarkable, the spring of the present year 

 saw no merlin on our moors at all. Both the breeding-places were quite tenantless. 

 — J. C. Atkinson ; Danby, Grosmont, York, December 12, 1861. 



Shorleared Owl and Rouyhleytjed Buzzard near Bishop Storlford. — I beg to for- 

 ward a note of two birds found on the estate of Mr. J. A. Houblon, and killed by 

 one of the keepers, G. Lambert: — November 12th, a shorleared owl, in the stubble ; 

 November 18ih, a rough legged buzzard, which had been seen at times for a fortnight, 

 but managed to escape the vigilance of the keepers until Monday last, when it was 

 shot in Hatfield Forest: it measured 4 feet 4 inches from tip to lip, and 18 inches 

 from beak to tail. — T. Brim ton ; Haliinybury Place, November 21, 1861. 



Note on the Food of the Kestrel. — My notice was drawn, a few minutes since, to 

 Mr. Saxby's " Notes on the P^ood of Birds " (Zool. 7809), and in reference to the 

 food of the kestrel I would willingly place on record a factor two which have recently 

 come to my knowledge, and which are inconsistent with all my former observations. 

 I had held, on the presumption afforded by these observations, that the kestrel does 

 not attack game, unless indeed a very " weak and infirm" and " unprotected" chick 

 should present an utterly overpowering temptation. Stating my opinion, last spring, 

 to a bird-loving and observing »entleman, he told me I was mistaken, for that such 

 and such facts— the death of nearly-grown young partridges and the like, occurring 

 within his own knowledge — were clearly against me. Later in the year I was talking 

 to the " watcher" aboul his experience in hawk-slaughter this year, and I added my 

 doubts as to the expediency of killing kestrels. " But, sir," he said, " they kill a vast 

 of game.'' " Oh, no ! surely not much : they are not strong enough or big enough." 

 "Well, sir, I don't know how that may be; but I shot t' cock bird iv a nest i' t' 

 crag, and he had t' fore-quarters iv a fine young moor bird in his claws; and what's 

 more, I brought it home with me." — J. V. Atkinson ; Danby, Grosmont, York. 



Scops Eared Owl (Strix Scops) in Norfolk. — On the 27th of November an adult 

 male of this pretty little owl was picked up dead near the lighthouse 'at Cromer, 

 against which it had apparently flown with great force, attracted by the glare of the 

 lamps. The head exhibited no marks of injury, and the plumage was perfect, but the 

 flesh on the breast and the point of one wing showed symptoms of having sustained a 

 severe blow. The stomach contained a mass of fur, about, the size of a walnut, 

 amongst which was discernible an almost perfect skeleton of a mouse, together with 

 the heads and forceps of several earwigs, and three stout caterpillars nearly an inch 

 in length. This rare species has previously occurred in this county in three or four 

 authentic instances, but not of late years. The present specimen is now in the col- 

 lection of J. H. Gurney, Esq., M.P., of Catton Hall. — H. Stevenson; Norwich, 

 December 7, 1861. 



Parrot Crossbill at Cheltenham. — This bird, the occurrence of which I noticed 

 three years since in the pages of the ' Naturalist,' has again made its appearance in 

 the neighbourhood of Cheltenham. Nathaniel Skellon, bird-preserver of that place, 

 writes me word that he has taken three examples this autumn. — W. V. Guise; 

 Elmore Court, December 2, 1861. 



Sand Marlins' Nests in the Walls of an Old Priory. — A circumstance which I 

 remember in connexion with CJodstow is the fact that a colony of sand martins had 

 — and probably slill have — their nests in holes of the wall of the Old Priory, many of 

 them entering from within the building, which of course is roofless. This is the only 



