MISCKLLANEOUS NOTICES. 63 



a single Swift flying over the River Ouse, near Lynn, on the morning of the 

 16th, of September. I last saw the House Martin about the 14:th. of October. 

 — Thomas Southwell, Lynn, Norfolk, November 5th., 1851. 



^are Birds at StocJdon-on-Tees. — I take the liberty of informing you that 

 I purchased a very fine specimen of the Red-necked Grebe, {Podiceps ruhri- 

 collis,) which I think very rare — shot on the 30th. of October, 1851, on the 

 lake about a mile from this town. I have also a very superior specimen of the 

 Canada Goose, and one of Bewick's Swan, shot on this river in the winter of 1850; 

 and a specimen of the Bohemian Chatterer, shot in the winter of 1850; 

 there were more than a dozen shot the same winter about this place. — 

 William Martin, Cleveland Roiv, Stocldon-on-Tees, November Gth., 1851. 



Nest of the House Pigeon. — In my dovecote, near this town, it is the 

 common practice of the Pigeons to use twigs in forming their nests. Those 

 generally used are the dried twigs of the hawthorn and birch, and, but rarely, 

 the American fir. The stable-yard is on one side of the house and the 

 stack-yard on the other. — J. B. M., Glasgoio, October 23rc^., 1851. 



The Stockdove, (Columba ccnas.) — A friend of mine took the fresh eggs of 

 the Stockdove from a rabbit-burrow in Beechamwell warren, on the 20th. 

 of August last. — T. Southwell, Lynn, Norfolk, December 5th., 1851. 



Note on the Cuckoo, (Cuculus canorus.) — Having seen in ^'^The Naturalist" 

 various accounts of the Cuckoo being heard different times at early periods 

 of the year, it may not be uninteresting to your readers to have an account 

 of a Cuckoo reared in this place by Mr. "W. Plowman several years ago. It 

 was taken from a Hedge Sparrow's nest, in the latter end of April; kept 

 in a small room with a wood-lattice window, and fed for a short time at 

 first with worms cut small, and for the rest of the time with lean raw flesh, 

 (either beef or mutton,) of which it ate about a pound every week, and never 

 drank any water. Mr. Plowman kept it in this way through two successive 

 winters, parting with it to a friend of his a little after the end of two years, 

 when it soon after died. It began to call the first year about the same 

 time as others in the neighbourhood; the second year it started three weeks 

 earlier. Its voice was as strong and clear as that of other Cuckoos. — JV. B. 

 Gray, Tollerton, December VZth., 1851. 



Occurrence of the Little Auk, (Mergulus alle,) near Cambridge. — A very 

 fine specimen of this species was presented to me for my collection by W. 

 H. Jackson, Esq., of Trinity College, who found it alive, but in a very exhausted 

 state, in a dry ditch close adjoining the highroad from Cambridge to St. 

 Neots, about eight miles distant from the former town, November 21st., 1851. 

 — B. A. Julian, December 5th., 1851. 



Heronry. — There is one still in existence at the seat of Harvey Coombe, 

 Esq., Cobham Park, Surrey. — H. J. C, Blackheath, December 12th., 1851. 



