Partridge and the December one had, when fresh, the red patch of skin behind the eye which is a character in adult Partridges of the normal type.
On May 18th the Rev. M.C. Bird received an albino Robin from Hempstead, and in September the 'Field' recorded a white Swallow at Gunton, in which month I saw a pied Robin† at Northrepps. A pied Mallard† with a very dark back, forwarded by Mr. Patterson, was bought in Yarmouth market, but may not have been a wild-bred one. Mr. Lowne received a primrose-coloured Greenfinch alive from Bury St. Edmunds.
Correction.
The Ruddy Shelduck,† stated to have been shot near Yarmouth (Zool. 1899, p. 123, and 1900, p. 530), was, I now find, shot at Blakenny by Mr. Long, the well-known wildfowler, and it is impossible to say whether it was a wild bird.
Affection among Birds.
A pair of Barton Mute Swans frequented Mrs. Lubbock's little broad at Catfield during the autumn; one of these birds was wounded (an old gunshot wound probably), and died at the end of September. On October 1st Mr. Bird saw the hen Swan sitting by the side of her departed—feather to feather. This she—more or less, off and on—continued to do, never going more than a few hundred yards away, until the carcase was all gone excepting a few feathers and bones. Even the large bones—sternum, leg, and wing bones—had been carried away (by Rats and Crows) before the poor old hen relinquished her watchings, for on November 26th Mr. Bird disturbed her from within a few inches of the remains.
