GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOW. 409 



Mr. Creighton, of Clifden, and subsequently sent the Author 

 further particulars, to the effect that the bird was caught alive 

 by two persons on the island of Omagh, where, pursued by 

 Hawks, it flew for refuge into a hole in a stone fence.* It 

 appeared fatigued, weak, and emaciated, as if after a long 

 flight ; but lived for four days, attempts being made to feed 

 it on potatoes. The specimen, which Thompson thought to 

 be an adult, was afterwards obtained for the Museum of 

 Trinity College, Dublin, but has since perished. Another 

 specimen, the first known in Great Britain, was recorded 

 (Zool. s.s. p. 2344) as having been shot in Northumberland 

 in 1870, and Mr. Hancock states (B. Northumb. &c. p. 27) 

 that it was killed near Bellingham on the North Tyne, 

 August 5th of that year, and afterwards presented to the 

 Newcastle Museum. f 



This species was first described and figured in 1743 by 

 Edwards (Nat. Hist. Uncomm. Birds, ii. pi. 57) from an 

 example shot at Gibraltar by Catesby's brother, and is a 

 regular summer-visitant to the Iberian peninsula, in some 

 parts of which it is common, while it appears accidentally, 

 almost always in spring, in the south of France, + though 

 unknown in the rest of that country. It is said, however, 

 to have occurred on two occasions in Germany. The first of 



* There is mucli discrepancy as to the date of the oceun-ence. Ball writing {ut 

 supra) July 19, 1843, gives " last spring." In the Second Edition of this work 

 (ii. p. 201) the Author, from Ball's subsequent information, stated "about Christ- 

 mas, 1843" — an obvious error as to the year, and corrected in the Third Edition 

 (ii. p. 206) to "1842." Thompson, however, asserted (B. Irel. i. p. 364) that 

 "The month of March, 1842, is said to have been the time of its capture." 



+ In the last Edition of this work another instance was mentioned ; but, 

 looking to the authority cited (Zool. p. 3046), it will be seen that the statement 

 refers to the Great Spotted Woodpeclcer. 



X The details of its appearance are not very precise. Vieillot (Fauna Frang. 

 p. 60) says that several examples have been found in Languedoc in different 

 years, and Roux that others have been found in Provence. Crespon, in 1840, 

 mentioned (Orn. Gard, pp. 268, 269) having killed a fine male near the Rhone in 

 May, 1837, and that the next day two were seen not far from the same place 

 by a farmer, who shot one of them and sent it to him, while another had 

 been lately killed near Montpellier. One netted in that neighbourhood is also 

 recorded by MM. Jaubert and Barthelemy-Lapommeraye (Rich. Orn. p. 388). 

 Lacroix says (Ois. Pyren. Fran9. p. 273) it is a very rare aud irregular visitor to 

 the Eastern Pyrenees, and he particularizes one he received May 2nd, 1870. 



