lletrospective Criticism. 275 



your correspondent, that this must be, at least, a rather unusual occur- 

 rence, inasmuch as I never recollect to have observed it previously to see- 

 ing his statement in your Magazine ; and yet I have not been inattentive 

 to the habits and manners of the bird. I can now, however, bear testimony 

 to the accuracy of the remark. On the 3d of March I was an eye and ear 

 witness to the fact of a missel thrush singing, — and singing in good 

 style, — on the wing, flying over the Lammas Fields, between this vil- 

 lage and Coventry. And it is a singular coincidence, though perhaps 

 too trifling to be noticed, that this occurred the very next morning after I 

 had read the remarks of your correspondent. That cuckoos frequently 

 sing on the wing is a fact, I believe, well known to naturalists. 



The above remarks may perhaps be deemed too unimportant to find a 

 place in your pages ; at the same time it strikes me, that the remarks of 

 one naturalist in corroboration of those of another, relating to a fact which, 

 it appears, had almost escaped the notice of an out-of-doors observer, may 

 not be entirely without interest to some at least of your readers. 



I will only add, that the missel thrush commenced its ordinary song in 

 this neighbourhood on the 24th of November, 1830. Yours, &c. — W. T^ 

 Bree. Allesley Rectory y March 8. 1831. 



The Nuthatch in the Neighbourhood of Bedford. — Sir, The very handsome 

 manner in which Mr. White has alluded (p. 184.) to the remarks which I 

 took the liberty of making in a former Number (Vol. III. p. 450.) on his 

 statements relative to the song of the cuckoo and the departure of the 

 swifts, induces rae to put another question to that intelligent naturalist ; 

 and I now feel confident I may do so without running the risk of giving 

 him offence, Mr. White, in his " Journal of the Weather kept at Bedford '* 

 (p. 171.), says, " the nuthatch (>Sitta europae^a) arrived on the 24th of 

 March." Allow me to ask whether the bird is a migratory species in that 

 neighbourhood. Possibly it may be so ; for some birds are partially migra- 

 tory ; I mean that in some cHstricts they are to be seen only in summer or 

 in winter, while in others they are to be met with during both seasons alike. 

 An example of this kind occurs, as I am informed, in the common king- 

 fisher ; a very able naturalist, resident at the time in Yorkshire, once as*- 

 sured me that the kingfisher was only to be found in his neighbourhood 

 in the winter ; and I have been told of other places where the bird is only 

 to be met with in the summer. In Warwickshire, however, both the king- 

 fisher and the nuthatch undoubtedly remain with us throughout the whole 

 year. 



The Cuckoo. Again, Mr. White (p. 172.) says, " the cuckoo departed 

 on the 3d of July." Does he not rather mean that the bird then became 

 silent ? that being just about the season when its song usually ceases to be 

 heard. But the bird itself does not depart, or leave this country, till long 

 after it has ceased to sing ; not, I believe, till the autumn, or at least till 

 late in the summer. I conceive it to be the right, I might almost say 

 the duty, of one naturalist to criticise (provided it be done with courtesy 

 and moderation) the remarks of his brother students in the field of nature; 

 for b}^ these means the truth, which ought to be the object with all natu- 

 ralists, is most likely to be elicited and confirmed. And I cannot but ex- 

 press a wish that all your correspondents would receive the remarks of 

 those who may happen to differ from them in opinion, in the same candid 

 and gentlemanlike spirit as is evinced by Mr. White. 



• I had almost forgotten to state, that the facts of the cuckoo being heard 

 on the 28th of July, and four swifts seen on the 27th September (see 

 p. 185.), — facts, the accuracy of which I no longer feel myself at liberty to 

 call in question, — are certainly very unusual ones, and, as such, are well 

 worthy of being recorded in your Magazine. Yours, &c. — Id, 



The pectinated Claw of the Goatsucker. — I cannot but smile at the sim- 

 plicity of Mr. Rennie, who, with an obvious desire for truth, is sometimes 



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