them to this Museum. Another immature specimen has also been shot within the last few days at Turf, on the Exe. This species has occurred three times previously on the same river, once at Teignmouth, twice in Torbay, and twice at Plymouth. A Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) in winter plumage was shot at Powderham, on the Exe, on the ] 5th January, by Mr. A. K. Hamilton, who has presented it to this Museum; it is not common on the Exe, but has been obtained in various stages of plumage, principally in the early months of the year. On the 18th December last a young male Long-tailed Duck (Harelda glacialis) was brought to me in the flesh; it had been killed on the Exe. We have now a fine series in this Museum killed on this river: an adult male in summer plumage (1847), an adult male in winter plumage, a young male (1851), another young bird (1865). A small flock of these ducks was seen on the Exe in November, 1867.—W.S.M. D'Urban (Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter).
Rooks Attacking Acorns.—Your remarks on Rooks attacking acorns (page 21) reminds me of what came under my observation some twenty years since, when residing in Morayshire. I made some notes on the subject at the time, and now give an extract, thinking it will go far to prove that the Rooks you saw carrying off acorns were doing so to get at the grubs. The past autumn having been unusually mild, the thermometer in November frequently as high as 55°, grubs and worms were unusually abundant, consequently Rooks could not have been pressed by hunger to feed on acorns. Seeing that the Nuthatch breaks the hazel-nut, we need not wonder at the Rooks breaking the shell of the walnut. The note to which I refer is as follows:—"November, 1858. Observing a number of Rooks flying in and out of a fir plantation, and remarking that they were more than usually clamorous, I was induced to watch them; I then found that on emerging from the wood they held in the beak something of considerable size, but what it might be I could not imagine. Snails were thought of, but it being late in November they were hybernating, so I endeavoured by a closer inspection to ascertain what could have been found of an eatable kind in the fir-trees, but the closely-matted branches effectually screened them. On leaving the wood they were observed to alight on an open space dotted with furze, under cover of which I was enabled to watch them unobserved; I then saw that what they were pecking and tearing at were fir-cones; the operation over—and it took but a few minutes—they returned to the trees for a fresh supply. On examining several of the cones strewn over the ground in different stages of decay, a grub, or maggot, was found in some of them near the core, showing clearly on what the Rooks had been feeding."—Henry Hadfield (Ventnor).
Rooks Attacking Acorns.—Like Mr. R.M. Barrington I had never noticed that acorns were not included by the authorities on British Birds
