OBSERVED IN HERTS IN 1892. 165 



sailor wouki say), not crosswise as other birds do. Mr. Cane, of 

 Luton, writes to mc : "I had a nightjar from your county with 

 four wini;-s])()ts, a circumstance I have never seen recorded. Al- 

 though 1 have received numbers of these birds in my time, I have 

 never seen one like it ; it is a very unusual occurrence." 



The Cuckoo ( Cuculus canorus) has been reported to me as having 

 been heard, and in one instance seen, at an unusually early date. 

 Mr. J. E. Harting, iu ' Our Summer Migrants' (page 219), states : 

 " In no instance, so far as I am aware, has the cuckoo been heard 

 or si'on before the 6th of April." The cuckoo was reported in the 

 'Field' (April 23, 1892, p. 586) to have been heard at Hatheld 

 on the 2nd of April, 1892. Miss Lewis assures me that both 

 she and a friend heard it in Hatfield Park on that day; and ]\Ir. 

 Ernest Gibbs informs me that the bird was heard at Harpenden 

 on the same day. Sergeant McKay states that it was heard at 

 Boxmoor on the 4th of April. Mr. Day, one of our postmen, 

 reports having heard the bird at St. Albans on the 5th of April, 

 and both Mr. Charles and Mr. Arthur Dickinson heard it at 

 Beech Bottom on the same day. Mr. Rooper reports having seen 

 a cuckoo in his garden at "Watford on the 6th of April. 



The Peregrine Falcon [Falco peregrinus). — In my last paper a 

 common buzzard {Buteo vulgaris) was reported, second-hand, by 

 Mr. Arthur Sparry, as having been "shot at Cole Green . . . 

 by Mr. Digby." Mr. Sparry, after having seen the bird, states that 

 he was misinfoiTued, for it proved to be a female peregrine falcon. 

 I have also seen the bird, and can confirm this determination. I 

 must confess I am sorry to report the death of so noble a bird, with 

 its "Tradition of Ages;" why it should be so ruthlessly persecuted 

 I fail to see. 



Lord Lilford remarks*: " The peregrine can and does take groiise 

 and partridges when she gets a fair chance and is hungry, but it 

 must be remembered that as a rule she captures her ' quarry ' in 

 the air, and that our common game-birds just mentioned are of 

 terrestrial habits and certainly by no means willing to take wing 

 ■when a falcon is in sight, but do their utmost to squat close and 

 conceal themselves, so that they are by no means the habitual, or 

 even (in my opinion) a particularly favourite prey of the pere- 

 grine." He is convinced that pigeons, the smaller species of the 

 Duck family, especially teal, and wading-birds of all kinds, are the 

 most usual and most natural food of the falcon, and he adds, "I do 

 not think that the most ardent lover of the gim should grudge her 

 a due share of these. Several specimens of this falcon have at 

 different times been obtained in this county. One, a male bird I 

 have in my possession, was, tradition affirms, captured years since 

 in clap-nets by a bird-catcher named George Earr, when pouncing 

 down on his brace bird. Mr. Sparry informs me of several. One, 

 killed near Sandridge, came into the possession of a Mr. Eranklin, 

 of that village ; another was killed at Marshall's Wick by a keeper 



* ' Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands,' part xii. 



