58 BRITISH BIRDS. 



domestic fowl from an egg collected on the marshes. 

 Recovered at West Mersea, Essex, in September, 1910. 

 Black-headed Gull {Larus ridibundus).--B.B., No. 30,095, 

 marked by Messrs. Robinson and Smalley at Ravenglass, 

 Cumberland, on June 11th, 1910, as a nestling. Recovered 

 at Askam-in-Furness, Lancashire, on April 4th, 1911. 

 Reported by Mr. Arthur Beavers. 



Cuckoo in Goldcrest's Nest. — In the Field for June 3rd, 

 1911, Mr. H. S. Davenport gives an interesting account of a 

 young Cuckoo which w as being reared by a pair of Goldcrests 

 in his garden at Dunmow, Essex. The Goldcrest is one of 

 the rarer foster-23arents of the Cuckoo, and all the previous 

 records by reliable observers appear to relate to the Continent. 

 Professor Newton {A History of British Birds, 4th ed., Vol. II., 

 p. 394), states that the Cuckoo has been known to lay in the 

 nests of all the Sylviidge mentioned in that work, except the 

 Rufous, Savi's, and the Yellow-browed Warbler, and according 

 to his classification, the Goldcrest is included among the 

 Sylviidae. Dresser, Bid well, Rey, and Wells Bladen also 

 mention it in their lists, and Herr A. Walter is said by J. A. 

 Link to have taken three eggs twice in one w^eek from Gold- 

 crests' nests. Rey quotes Baldamus as his authority, but 

 had no specimens from Goldcrests' nests in his collection ; 

 while Dresser inserts it on the authority of Thienemann. 

 Mr. Davenport is inclined to believe that the egg is carried 

 in the crop rather than the bill befoie it is regurgitated, and 

 finally deposited in the nest of the foster-parent. — F.C.R.J. 



Scottish Heronries. — Mr, A. L. Thomson gives an account 

 of the Heronries in the Dee area in the Annah of Scottish 

 Natural History, 1911 (pp. 7-9), and Mr. H. B. Watt adds 

 (pj). 72-75) further particulars of .Scottish Heronries to his 

 previous lists, and suggests the making of a census of Herons 

 in Scotland. 



Cock Pheasants Assuming Female-like Plumage. — 

 Although female Pheasants assuming male-like plumage are 

 frequently met with, cases of the reverse are ve^y rare. In 

 the Field (25, 2, 1911, p. 384), Mr. H. Hammond Smith con- 

 tributes an interesting article on three cases of males with 

 partially hen-like plumage, these birds being sent to him by 

 Mr. A. Gilbey in December, 1910, from Uxbridge (Middlesex). 

 In these birds the proximal part of he tail is hen-hke, w^hile the 

 distal haK is cock-hke, the head and neck are mostly hen-like, 

 and other pa ts of the plumage are mixed. All the specimens 

 had well-developed spurs. The article includes a technical 



