144 The Irish Naturalist, July, 1913. 
A Blackbird's Note. / 
There is a note or call to be heard in our woods and hedges, a common 
note of one of our commonest birds, yet I think few of our readers could 
name its author. It is a sort of low whistle ; two parts whistle and one 
part sigh, perhaps describes it fairly well ; it lasts two or three seconds, 
and is repeated at intervals of about the same duration, and often goes 
on for several minutes. It has something of what Gilbert White calls 
an " inward " quality, and is pitched in such a key that, like the squeak 
of a bat, it is inaudible to many ears. It is highly ventriloquial, and 
almost impossible to locate, as it comes from north, south, east, and west, 
and far or near in bewildering succession, or seems to do so. It has 
puzzled me for j^ears. I could find nothing about it in books, so I con- 
salted some of our best field naturalists, but they could not name the 
author, and 5^et it is nothing more mysterious than the Common Black- 
bird. Do many readers know this ? 
G. H. Pentland. 
Blackball, Drogheda. 
OBITUARY. 
NATHANIEL H. ALCOCK. 
It is with very deep regret that we record the loss of Professor N. H. 
Alcock, M.D., D.sc, at the early age of 42 years. After graduating with 
high honours at the University of Dublin, his native city, in 1896, he 
studied in Germany, taught in the medical school at Manchester, and came 
back to Trinity College as demonstrator in pliysiology in 1898. During 
the succeeding years he served as Secretary of the Dublin Field Club, 
and worked enthusiastically at the Irish Mammalia. His papers on the 
" Natural History of Irish Bats," published in this Magazine (vols, viii., 
X.), partly in collaboration with C. B. Moffat, gave promise of brilliant 
zoological achievement. But in 1901, Alcock removed to London and 
began to devote himself to physiological teaching and research, gaining 
fame by his precise experimental work on the nervous system. He pub- 
lished papers on the relations of the physical, chemical, and electrical 
properties of nerves ; on the variation cf the velocity of nerve -impulses 
in relation to stature ; and on the influence of anaesthetics on nervous 
phenomena. In 191 1 he was appointed to the chair of physiology at 
McGill University, Montreal, an institution which has been a temporary 
home for many brilliant men. Alcock's numerous friends in England 
and Ireland grieve to think that they cannot hope for his return in the 
fullness of his powers to the scenes of his earlv successes. 
G. H. C. 
