Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/475

Rh struck down. Mr. Wyatt, birdstuffer, of Banbury, has it to preserve for me.— (Bedford).

—On the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th of September a Cuckoo was heard uttering its usual spring cry in this parish, to the no small consternation of some of the inhabitants; for in this retired village on the Downs anything unusual creates alarm, and this unwonted call of the Cuckoo in September is supposed to prognosticate I know not what calamities, one woman declaring that she cannot sleep at night for thinking of the troubles indicated! The fact, however (apart from its supposed omen) of a Cuckoo calling in September is sufficiently remarkable to deserve record. That it was a bonâ fide bird, and not a boy, I am perfectly certain, both because it was heard on the same day in widely separated parts of the parish, and because I listened to it in my own orchard, now at one end and in a few moments at the farther corner, to which no boy could have carried him in the interval, even if he could have escaped being seen. Moreover, 1 flatter myself that I can recognize the note of a Cuckoo, and distinguish between that and the vox humana, though I make no pretensions to accuracy of ear. At the same time I regret that the thick foliage intervening prevented my catching sight of the bird, as I vainly attempted to do; not, however, for my own satisfaction, for I was perfectly convinced, but for the more complete evidence to lay before others. Assuming that the call was undoubtedly that of a Cuckoo, the question arises, was it an old bird, who ought not only to have ceased his song (?) two months ago, but to have been well on his travels to the South long since? or was it a precocious bird of the year, assaying to imitate his real parent's note, to which he was not yet, by right of age, entitled? Whichever he was, he was very assiduous in calling during the four days he spent in this parish, and he called loudly and well, and with all the air of a practised performer.— (Yatesbury Rectory, Calne).

—Through the kindness of R.C. Fowler, Esq., of Gunton, near Lowestoft, who allowed me to see a specimen which has recently come into his possession, I am enabled to record another instance of the occurrence in England of the Blue-throated Warbler, Cyanecula suecica. It was obtained in July last, by George Boon (gamekeeper to Mr. Fowler), who found it strangled in a fishing-net strewn out on Gunton Denes, which lie off the shore just to the north of Lowestoft. It is a male bird, belonging to the Scandinavian form which has the spot on the breast red. Comparing this specimen with Yarrell's description of the species, I observe that the "line of white" he mentions below the black bar of the breast is in this example very indistinctly marked, indeed it is hardly traceable; and examining it by the side of Gould's plate of the species, the principal difference to be noted is that the black bar on the