Birds. 



6779 



' Whale Bay,* from the circumstance, he says of its being resorted to by numerous 

 whales, and its being the only part of the coast where I have seen them.'' A proper 

 description of the fresh animal is a desideratum. — Communicated by the Editor of the 

 4 Indian Field.* 



Occurrence of the Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) in Derbyshire. — On Saturday 

 last, as one of my sons was shooting rabbits on a moor, about a mile from hence, he 

 saw a large hawk chasing some wood pigeons ; after flying off some distance it returned 

 and hovered over a spaniel he had with him, as if inclined to attack it; being within 

 distance he fired, and brought it screaming to the ground, but, not being dead, it 

 fought both him and the dog most furiously. It proved to be a most rare bird in these 

 parts, a female Falco peregrinus, a flue specimen and in excellent preservation. 

 I am not aware that it has been ever before shot in this county. — Henry R. Crewe ; 

 Breadsall Rectory, near Derby; October 25, 1859. 



A Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) killed by the Telegraph-wires.— A fine young 

 female peregrine, a bird of the year, was picked up one day last week on the Yarmouth 

 line, near Needham, having one wing broken at the shoulder-joint, and a deep cut at 

 the base of the upper mandible, from coming in contact with the wires of the 

 telegraph. The poor bird, when found, was still alive, but did not long survive its 

 injuries; whether these were received from coming in contact with the wires 

 in the dark, on its nocturnal migration, as occurs frequently with the snipe, 

 plover and woodcock at this season of the year, or from its too impetuous chase of 

 some intended victim during the day, must remain a matter of speculation for 

 naturalists. — H. Stevenson ; Norwich, October 22, 1859. 



Disappearance of Swallows and Martins. — These birds were late in leaving this 

 season: about the 1 6th of October nearly a hundred martins were round the house I 

 live in, and on the 17th none were to be seen. Ou Monday, October 24th, at 7 a. m., 

 about fifty martins returned and surrounded the house, and kept flying at a nest in the 

 corner of one of the windows; they all disappeared in about four hours: the morning 

 of their return was very frosty, with the thermometer at 23°. Is it usual for them 

 to stay so late? Mr. Whistlecraft, in his 'Weather Almanac' for 1860, repeats his 

 observation of the late departure of these birds as the sign of mild weather during 

 winter, and also observes that the house swallows during the last three hot summers 

 have forsaken the close chimneys and built more in open places. — H. W. Newman; 

 Hill Side, Cheltenham, November 9, 1859. 



Variety of the Common Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus). — On the 29th of 

 September another beautifully pied variety of the nightjar was - killed near Holt, the 

 same locality in which the specimens which I recorded in the ' Zoologist' for 1856 

 and 1858 (Zool. 5278, 6242) were also obtained. In its singular variation of plumage 

 this bird, a female, strongly resembled the previous examples, having the wings, 

 throat and upper part of the breast, with the vent and under tail-coverts, pure white. 

 This singular freak of nature in a species rarely subject to any deviation from its 

 normal colouring is the more remarkable from the birds having been met with in 

 three successive seasons in the same neighbourhood, and, although strictly migratory 

 in their habits, being undoubtedly the offspring of the pair obtained in 1856, thus 

 assuming the nature of a permanent variety. — H. Stevenson; Norwich, October 22 , 

 1859. 



