Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/299

Rh of thirty-seven species in about three or four hours included the Reed- and Sedge- Warblers, the Lesser Tern (also observed at Weymouth, May 13th), and other interesting birds.

The New Forest: In a walk through Lyndhurst to Emery Down and Brockenhurst, I only added the Stock-Dove and Nuthatch to my former lists; but I found the Wood-Warbler especially numerous there also.

At the close of our visit to delightful Bournemouth, we journeyed to Weston-super-Mare, which I found also an excellent station, especially in the Bleadon and Uphill direction. There I saw and heard more than one Cirl-Bunting, and at Brean Down had a fine view of a small flock of Sheldrakes disporting themselves in the sea. The Raven still breeds on this lofty promontory, and Mr. Pople, our boatman, assured us that about two hours before our arrival two old birds, accompanied by five young ones, had for some time hovered over their heads; unluckily they did not favour us with an appearance.

I have kept to the close of this rambling communication the following incident:—On Sunday, May 12th, when walking up the Vale Road, Bournemouth, I heard a bird in the shrubbery of Carlton House, whose note I believed I recognized at once as that of the bird I had heard only at Karlsbad and at Brunnen in 1893, and I said to my wife, "That's Bonelli"; alluding to Bonelli's Warbler, which was identified for me by Rev. W. Warde Fowler on the Axenstein some years ago. On the 14th I heard and saw the bird again, and called at Carlton House, where the proprietor, Mr. Hamlet Kinsey, received me most kindly, and said that he had been watching that bird for some days, that he had never heard one like it before, and wondered what it could be, as his attention had been at once arrested by its unfamiliar note. I wrote at once to Mr. Warde Fowler, and had a reply from him, in which he said: "Your description of the bird, as you saw it, is Bonelli all over; your account of the song is utterly puzzling. The only conclusion I can come to is that it is either Bonelli's or Benson's Warbler, and which I can't say." Nor can I, nor do I lay any claim to be the discoverer of this Warbler in England. My object is rather to direct the attention of other ornithologists to the matter, who may have longer opportunities of observing the migrants on the south coast of England than I had, or can have.— (Karlsruhe, Montpelier Hill, Dublin).

Black Adder in South Wales.—On Thursday, June 13th, I received, from the Rev. D.H. Davies, Cenarth, South Wales, a serpent for identification. It is a Black Adder, a variety of our poisonous reptile extremely rare in this country, there being only two British specimens at South Zool. 4th ser. vol. V., July, 1901.