Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/168

140 seek the shores of the neighbouring county of Kent, where the distance from land to land being considerably less, the voyage may be performed with comparative ease and security. The peculiar flight of the Motacillidae may perhaps be also taken into consideration. There appears to be a continual tendency, as it were, to sink towards the ground, which is counteracted by a sudden jerk of the wings, performed at regular intervals, and producing a swinging motion in the air, which, when compared with the flight of other birds, has at least the appearance of being difficult and laboured.

It is certain that these birds never retrace their course in a westerly direction; and that, from this period, throughout the entire county, the species continues to be comparatively but sparingly distributed, until augmented by fresh arrivals from the continent, in the warm days of the ensuing spring.

Note on the Grey Wagtail. The grey wagtail (Motacilla boarula) resides with us all the year: in the winter season it is to be found along every brook, and even on the banks of the rivers Sheaf and Don in the middle of our populous town; then, of course, in its plainer plumage. In the beginning of April it acquires its black throat, and then retires to the margins of the mountain streams on the adjacent moors, to breed.—John Heppenstall; Upperthorpe, near Sheffield, March, 1843.

the many interesting examples in British Ornithology which the county of Cornwall has from time to time displayed, and more particularly since the attention of naturalists has been directed to the favorable opportunities which the county presents, from its maritime, peninsular, and extreme westerly position in the kingdom, for ascertaining the existence of occasional stragglers, which, according to modem naturalists, are entitled to a place in the British Fauna, provided they are so found in a natural and wild state, I have the pleasure of reporting that I have ascertained that the following rare British birds may now be included in our Cornish catalogue.