28 BRITISH BIRDS. 



On April 18th the first Spoonbills {Platalea leucorodia) , 

 three in number, arrived at Breydon, and stayed until the 

 29th ; while two more arrived on May 1st, and one appeared 

 on June 29th and stayed until July 8th, and was again seen 

 on July 22nd and 29th, and August 3rd and 8th. One was 

 also seen at Cley on April 18th. 



An Avocet {Recurvirostra avocetta) visited Breydon on July 

 15th, and was seen on the 18tli and 29th, and again on 

 August 3rd ; \^'hile three Avere present for two hours on 

 August 8th, and then went probably to Blakeney, where 

 three were seen on the same day (c/. t.c, p. 196). 



On August 3rd Mr. Bird put up near one of the Broads a 

 young Marsh-Harrier [Circus osruginosus) , which he believed 

 was bred locally. 



On August 19th a Golden Oriole {Oriolus galhula) was shot 

 at Cley. 



On December 1st a A^Hieatear {Saxicola oenanthe) was seen 

 at Eccles-on-the-Sea, while another was seen at Twyford on 

 January 3rd, 1910. 



A Flamingo [Phoenicopterus roseus) \va.s seen on the Wash 

 in June, 1909, but this and two Snow-Geese (Chen hyper- 

 boreus), which arrived at Holkham with the Pink-footed Geese 

 at the end of October, may have been " escajoes." 



Mr. Gurney gives some interesting details regarding a 

 Cuckoo {Cuculus ca/iorMs), showing that the parent Cuckoo 

 made a search in an ivy-covered wall several days before it 

 deposited its egg in a Wagtail's nest which was hidden in 

 the ivy ; that two of the Wagtail's eggs were eventually 

 removed, though how is unknown ; that the Cuckoo's egg 

 took fourteen days to hatch ; and that one young Wagtail 

 was ejected when the young Cuckoo was twenty-four hours 

 old, another three hours later, and the third and last an hour 

 and a half afterwards. H. F. W. 



AMERICAN BIRDS LIBERATED ON THE SCILLY 



ISLANDS. 

 Ix April the New York Zoological Society forwarded to 

 us per the s.s. " Minnehaha " the following American 

 birds : — Three Guiana Parrotlets {Psittacula guianensis) ; 

 four Northern Ground Doves {Columhigallina passerina 

 terrestris) ; six Inca Doves {Scardafella inca) ; six Columba 

 Crested Quail [Eupsychortyx leucopogon) ; four Sonoran Red- 

 Avings [Agelceus phoeniceus sonoriensis) ; six Purple Grackles 

 [Quiscalus quiscalus) ; six Bronze Grackles [Q. q. feneus). 



The " Minnehaha " was wrecked on the Scilly Isles, and I 

 noAv learn that all of the birds Mere liberated, so if any report 



