Retrospective Criticism, 301 



fordshire (IV. 466.); near Londonderry (IV. 270.); and to 

 be common on the northern coast of Donegal (V. 583.). 



When does the Cuckoo leave Britain ? — Relevant notices 

 are communicated in III. 154.; IV. 172.270.275.466.; VII. 

 342. note *. 



Whither does the Cuckoo, on its leaving Britain, go? — A 

 question to this amount is asked in III. 193. The Rev. W. 

 B. Clarke has contributed two facts relative to it in VII. 342. 

 note *, and has farther elucidated it in the following com- 

 munication: — 



Migration of the Cuckoo. — On referring to a journal kept 

 by my brother, during his late journey in Russia and over the 

 Caucasus, I find he mentions his having pursued a cuckoo, in 

 the end of Aug. 1833, when travelling between Vladimir and 

 Moscow. Does this fact add any information to what is known 

 of the retreat of the cuckoo? (See VII. 342. note *.) It 

 would indicate a longer stay in Russia than with us : or, was 

 it on its passage south or west ? Vladimir is in the latitude 

 of Edinburgh. Gilbert White, in his History of Selborne, 

 part 2. ix., mentions that it had been observed by old Belon, 

 then 200 years ago, that hawks and kites were seen, " in the 

 spring-time, traversing the Thracian Bosphorus from Asia to 

 Europe." The cuckoo arrived, in 1827? in the neighbour- 

 hood of Stockholm, on May 7. (Bkstroem, in the Jsis) ; at 

 Kuopis, in Finland (lat. 63°), on May 24. ( Wilhelm and Wright; 

 Bull, des Sci. Nat., xxii. 116.); and at Carlisle, in England, 

 on April 28., five days later than in 1828. (Phil. Mag., xxvii. 

 196.) The date of departure from Sweden is not known. — 

 W. B. Clarke. Stanley Green, near Poole, Dorsetshire* Dec. 6. 

 1834. 



Art. VIII. Retrospective Criticism. 



The Nest of the Carrion Crow. (VI. 209., VII. 514.) — 

 My remark, in a former Number [VI. 209.], that " not a 

 particle of the nest is ever seen betwixt the eggs and the eye 

 of him who has ascended the tree to take a view of them," 

 was made after a personal examination of many crows' nests, 

 during a long lapse of years; and the remark was strength- 

 ened by the conviction acquired during more than thirty 

 years' attention to the incubation of birds, that not one of 

 those birds, the young of which come blind out of the egg, 

 ever covers its eggs with any part of the materials of which 

 the nest is formed. 



Now, the carrion crow is numbered amongst those birds 

 whose young are hatched blind. 



