68 THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 
wanted the crimson on the throat. This vernal visitation 
was probably caused by a revolving gale which passed the 
Bermudas on the night of the 3lst of March. H.MS. 
“Wellesley,” which arrived in the Bermudas on that day 
from the West Indies, was reported to have met with a 
great many woodpeckers on the voyage, many of which 
were captured by the seamen. They were described as 
having crimson heads and yellow under plumage. 
Mr. Gosse found this woodpecker in the is!and of Jamaica, 
during the months of December, January, and February only, 
from which he concluded that it was migratory. It is a 
summer resident in Prince Edward Island. 
YELLOW-BILLED Cuckoo (Coccyzus Americanus). The 
extraordinary flight of cuckoos to which Major Wedderburn 
alludes, was observed immediately after a strong gale from 
the south-west, accompanied by torrents of rain, which con- 
tinued throughout the night. Nine specimens of this cuckoo 
were sent to me by different individuals on the following 
day. Thousands, “absolutely thousands,” of these birds 
were observed among the cedar trees on various parts of the 
south shore, from the Commissioner’s House, in Ireland 
Island, to Somerset, Port Royal, Walsingham, St. David's, 
and Cooper’s Islands, and as far north as St. Catherine’s 
Fort. In the course of two or three days not a straggler 
remained. 
From this it would appear that the yellow-billed cuckoo, 
which Wilson describes as being shy and solitary, is gre- 
garious at the period of its autumnal migration, and that it 
crosses the ocean on its southern flight. 
BaRN SwaLLow (Hirundo rustica). I can with safety 
affirm that from October, 1840, to the 12th of September, 
