Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/249

Rh nerant aquilæ columbas," and therefore I hope a "chaffy leaf" on the arrival of some species of summer migrants in Leicestershire may not prove altogether uninteresting to the ornithological readers of your periodical. Migration has been about ten days earlier in this district than it was in the spring of 1842; while from the prevalence of cold and dry easterly winds, succeeding the season of the equinox, observers might naturally have expected that the time of " the coming of birds " would be signally retarded. Several species of insects came abroad on wing much earlier this season than I have observed for several years past, especially those belonging to our diurnal Lepidoptera. On the 31st of March, the chiff-chaff (Sylvia Hippolais) was heard in the plantations of Tooley park, throwing its wild wood notes o'er leafless bough and flowerless path. Ray's wagtail (Motacilla Raii), I observed on the 7th of April, upon the sheltered and warm pastures within the mural walls of the Abbey of Leicester. The swallow (Hirundo rustica) was observed, April 9th, hawking for flies over the low and sheltered grounds beside the river Soar, near to Leicester castle. The wryneck (Yunx Torquilla) was heard to emit its kestril-like cry on the 9th of April, among the elms of Stoney-gate house: but the martin (Hirundo urbica) and sand-martin (H.riparia) were not seen in this district till the 18th. On that day the cry of the cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) was heard in the woodlands of Ansty and Newton Linford; and in Bradgate park, on the 18th,T also observed the whin-chat (Saxicola rubetra), stone-chat (S. rubicola), and fallow- chat (S. Œnanthe). The redstart (Sylvia Phœnicura) appeared on the 19th, at the ruins, in Bradgate park; and in Ansty lordship, on the same day, I observed the whitethroat (S. cinerea). The full, mellow and rich minstrelsy of the black-cap (S. atricapilla) I heard on the 19th of April, emitted from the boughs of some tall poplars growing beside the mill below Grooby pool. On the same day the "weet weet" of the sandpiper (Tringa hypoleucos) fell upon the ripple of the same water. The merry note of the tree pipit (Anthus arboreus) awoke our woodlands on the 19th; while our osier-holts and willow-beds drank in the sweet music of the willow-warbler (Sylvia Trochilus). The sedge-warbler (S. Phragmitis) and reed-warblers' (S. arundinacea) "babblings" I heard on the 20th in the willow-bed skirting the Soar below Leicester castle. The summer cry of the land-rail (Rallus Crex), was heard in the woodlands of Ansty on the 30th; and on May 3rd I observed a pair of swifts sailing over the village of Ayleston, in a north-easterly direction. " Swifts arrive in pairs in the middle districts of our island; " in that respect they differ essentially in their economy from the true Hirundines. But it would, I am sure, aid the cause of scientific research, were your Cornish correspondents to record their observations on the manners of these interesting migrants. Mr. Yarrell and Prof. MacGillivray, in their Histories of British Birds, are both silent on the subject; which is somewhat remarkable, especially in the latter writer, whose history of the swift (Cypselus murarius) is very elaborate and interesting. Mr. Bree, I know, is of opinion, that the number of swifts visiting our shores annually decreases; but whatever lack of numbers may take place in the vicinity of Coventry and Allesley, many years' close observation on their periodical shiftings, indicate no such decline in their numbers, so far as they have been observed by me in Leicestershire.—James Harley; Leicester, May 5, 1843.

Note on the occurrence of the White-winged Crossbill in Scotland. A white-winged crossbill (Loxia leucoptera) was shot in this neighbourhood in the month of February, 1841. I had an opportunity of examining the bird, which had been sent to a gunsmith in Jedburgh to be stuffed, and it appeared to me to be a full-grown female, but of this I cannot be certain. Small flocks of the common crossbill sometimes visit us