OBSERVATIONS. 



365 



Fallownow, near Coldingliam. It mea- 

 sures 7 feet 11 iuclies from tip to tip of 

 wing, and is in fine plumage. It was 

 caught in an ordinary steel vermin trap by 

 Simon Bathgate, gamekeeper to John Kam- 

 say L'Amy, Esq., of Dunkenny. — Edin- 

 iurgh Courant 



The Dodo. — The known remains of the 

 dodo are but few, but the hypotheses built 

 on what few relics have been discovered 

 are many, and in some degree various. The 

 investigations of Messrs. Strickland and 

 Melville proved that the bird really was a 

 gigantic ground pigeon, doubtless feeding 

 its young with the milky secretion of its 

 crop, like the whole of the columbine birds 

 of the present day. The views of Messrs. 

 Strickland and Melville as to the structure 

 of the dodo have been remarkably borne 

 out by the discovery of a large number of 

 bones of the bird in a small morass in the 

 Mauritius, known as the " Mare aux 

 Songes," which had been drained for agri- 

 cultural purposes. These bones have been 

 carefully examined, and an elaborate and 

 very valuable paper, descriptive of the 

 osteology of the animal was recently 

 read before the Zoological Society by 

 Professor Owen. In addition to a com- 

 plete set of the bones retained for the 

 national collection in the British Museum, 

 a considerable number of duplicates have 

 been obtained. These were sold by auction 

 by Messrs. Stevens, of London, on Tues- 

 day. They were arranged in eight lots 

 so as to make each one as complete as 

 possible. The lots were contested for with 

 much spirit, by a numerous assemblage of 

 scientific gentlemen, several of whom were 

 connected with the natural history depart- 

 ments of the British and Continental 

 museums, and the collection eventually 

 realised the sum of £83. — Manchester Ex- 

 aminer and Times. 



Lanius excuhitor. — A fine specimen of 

 the Great Grey Shrike, Lanius excuhitor ^ 

 in full plumage, was killed on Lord Lil- 

 ford's estate, Bank Hall, in this county, on 

 the 12th of February, and was forwarded 

 to Thomas Jones, of Church, for preserva- 

 tion, upon dissecting it, it proved to be a 

 female bird. — Sydney Smith. 



Supposed Variety of the Spotted Wood- 

 pecker ( Picus major ). — I have longbeen puz- 

 zled by a singular example of this bird, which 

 I shot in this island (Unst), in the autumn 

 of 1851. Perhaps some reader of the 

 Naturalist will oblige me with his opinion. 

 The specimen in question has the crown 

 of the head red, slightly spotted with black, 

 and in this, as in most other points, re- 

 sembles an ordinary example of the great 

 spotted woodpecker in the plumage of its 

 first autumn, only, the under parts are 

 much streaked with brownish black, and 

 the whole of the wing coverts, except those 

 immediately above the tertials, are ash 

 gray, with their central portions black ; 

 the rump and the nape of the neck are also 

 of those colours. — Henry L. Saxby, Balta- 

 sound, Shetland, March 28, 1866. 



Albino Starling. — A carpenter, named 

 Craig, at Bigadier Hill, north of Enfield, 

 has a stufi"ed white starling in his parlour 

 which was shot at Slough, Bucks. He has 

 also stulfed a very dark squirrel with a 

 white tail, which he shot near his cottage. 

 He will be glad to shew them and other 

 stufi"ed creatures to anyone calling. — W. 

 E. Tate, 4, Grove Place, Denmark Hill, 

 London. 



Fringilla spinus. — On the 2nd January, 

 while I was out with a gun, I came across 

 a flock of the Lesser Redpole, feeding, — 

 and being in want of a pair for preserva- 

 tion, I fired at the flock, and when I went 

 to pick up the birds I had killed, to my 

 sm-prise I found that I had killed four 



