COKEESPONDENCE. 281 



where I resided till 1854 ; aud, beiug of a very retiring disposition and 

 loving secludud ]iooks, most of my waking hours, when duties were over, 

 were s^ieut in tlie broad glades of the forest, in its deep recesses, or in 

 wanderings over the neighbouring heaths ; always alone, and avoiding the 

 residejice of man ; consequenljly, I have had many opportunities of 

 obsLTving the acticjus of the denizens of the forest, and the peculiarity of 

 si;niLi mtmbers of the feathefed tribe, which tliose journeying in company 

 raiglit not have had. The Cuckoo is an extremely shy bird, aud I have 

 fouuil many coiinLry persons wbo have never seen one, unless it has been 

 when flying ; and lihey may even then have sup[)osed it to be a pigeon. 

 A i)ersou must be very quiut, and hidden, or, in a general way, he will 

 not get a near sight of this sby bird. Hence arise many mistakes. It 

 is certainly here soiue days, at least, before uttering a cry at all, and 

 then it is very infre<inent and indistinct; but, as time goes on, the 

 bh"d is heard very frequently and distinctly, and just befoi-e its 

 departure it utters the repeated cry alluded to very frequently. I 

 have never heard the peculiar cry carlij ia the season; but it is 

 evident, from Mr. Male's lettci', that iu some places the cry is so 

 heard. The aged cottagers, in the neighbouiiiood I speak of, used always 

 to remark, when the repeated sounds were utto'ed, " The Cuckoo is 

 off, he does not like the haycocks;" and the better class would say, 

 " The Cuckoo is bidding good-bye to Old England." In hne, in that 

 part of the couni ly, the cjy was an acknowledged sign of its depai-ture. 

 With respect to the observatiou of Mr. E. J. Lowe, I must remark 

 his obsejvation will not apply to all parts, as I have watched the 

 bird iiy into a tree, utter the single cry two or tlu-ee times, then the 

 reiterated cry, and lastly fly off, perhaps uttering " cuckoo " while on 

 the wing, tio it is clear the habit of the bird is woHhy of a closer 

 observation, and that over a more extensive area than has yet been 

 given it. — J. R. Thompson, Tamworth. 



Rosa latebrosa (Nob.) in Warwickshire. — About five years since, I 

 found a rose in one of the Solihull lanes which seemed to me to be a 

 variety of Eosa canina, but distinct, as I thought, from any of the varieties 

 described in Mr. J. G. Bakers valuable monograph of the genus, and as it 

 was very nearly allied to pMsa vrrticillacaiitha, (Merat,) I labelled it in 

 my herbarium, R. verticiUacantha variety. Recently, however, I received 

 from Mr. T. R. Archer Briggs, of Plymouth, one of our best authorities 

 on Roses, a specimen labelled Rosa latehrosn, (Nob.,) and I at once saw 

 that my rose from Solihull was identical with Mr. Briggs's plant ; but to 

 be more siu-e, I sent Mr. Briggs a specimen of the SolihuU plant out of 

 my herbarium, and received the following reply: — "Some time ago I 

 arrived at the conclusion that a rose collected by yourself was identical 

 with the plant from this neighboui'hood (Plymouth) that M. Deseghse 

 labelled Eosa latebrosa (Nob.) The flowering specimen you have sent 

 certainly puts the matter beyond all doubt. I am very pleased to see 

 that this rose keeps up its characters in so widely separated parts of 

 England." Plymouth and SohhuU are at present, I believe, the only 

 British stations for this rose. Mr. Briggs says it is abundant in his 

 neighbourhood, but at present I have only seen it near Sohhull, in 

 Warwickshire, two fine bushes growing near together in that locality. 

 It is closely alhed to Eosa verticiUacantha, (Merat ;) in fact, would follow 

 that plant in natural sequence, but difi'ers in having intermediate arma- 

 ture on the flowering shoot, in this respect apparently approaching some 

 of the spinosissima group. This plant is, therefoi'e, an addition to our 

 War^vickshire rose flora. No English description has yet been published 

 of this rose. — James E. Bagnall. 



Notes on the Flora of Napton. — Understanding that the neigh- 

 bom-hood of Napton-on-the-Hill has not been much worked by botanists 



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