I learnt that a nest of Sparrowhawks had been reared in a fir wood near, and that the pair of old birds had been seen about the locality all the summer. Those I saw were undoubtedly the inhabitants of this nest; but the question arises, could they all have been of one family? and even provided two were the parents, is it not very unusual for this species to lay so many as seven eggs? or is it possible that the young of two nests were thus congregating? If so, it seemed to me that they were unnaturally social, for I had never before seen more than a pair of these birds together on the wing.— G.B. Corbin (Ringwood, Hants).
White-fronted Goose.—On the 20th October Mr. Collins Splatt, of Plymouth, presented me with a White-fronted Goose, Anser albifrons, which had been killed a few days before on a down near Colstock, and was said to have associated with some tame geese. It was, without exception, the finest in plumage I ever saw, the bands on the breast and belly being so broad and close together as to make the under parts appear almost wholly black. On examination I found the stomach full of the common Dutch clover, Trifolium repens, mixed apparently with a dark kind of gravel. Several geese of the same species were afterwards exposed for sale in our markets, all of which .were said to have been killed in Cornwall.—John Gatcombe (Stonehouse, Plymouth).
Albino Specimens of the Common Snipe and Wryneck.—In the spring of the present year an albino specimen of the Common Snipe was killed at the Wilstone Reservoir, near Tring, by one of the keepers of Baron Lionel de Rothschild, and is now in his possession. A few days ago (October 23rd) a pure white Wryneck, a young bird of the year, was brought to me. It had been killed a few weeks previously in the grounds of Mr. R. S. Colet, of Wendover Hall. It is now in the collection of Sir John Harpur Crewe, of Calke Abbey, near Derby.—H. Harpur Crewe (The Rectory, Drayton-Beauchamp).
Purple Gallinule in Norfolk.—Another specimen of the green-backed species was shot in Norfolk on the 1st November, and there is no reason for thinking it had escaped from captivity. I had a letter on the 5th of that month from the owner, in which he said that it was shot at Stalham, which is only a few miles from Hickling, where the last recorded specimen was obtaiued. It is in just the same plumage as the other, I hear, and a male bird.—J.H. Gurney, Jun. (Northrepps, Norwich).
Merlins Nesting in a Tree.—At a recent meeting of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, Mr. James Lumsden exhibited a pair of Merlins, Falco æsalon (male and female), which had been shot from the nest in a tree on the banks of Loch Lomond, in July last. Mr. Lumsden stated that he exhibited these birds in order that the somewhat unusual
