270 FfRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 



headed " Cuckoo in December," stated that he distinctly 

 heard a cuckoo calling about twenty times, in a tree near 

 Swanage, on December 2nd. This was followed, in the issue of 

 December 16th, by a further note wherein Mr. Day reproduced 

 a communication received from a Mr. E. A. Cobden, of 

 Martock, in Somerset, who, writing on December 9th, said 

 that he had heard the cuckoo there about a fortnight before, 

 and also in the preceding week. In the same column a corres- 

 pondent using " Fact " as his nom de plume while giving 

 instances of wonderfully clever imitations, by boys, of the 

 cuckoo's note, asserted that Mr. Day's original statement 

 about the cuckoo at Swanage could be substantiated by several 

 reliable individuals living in Swanage, and that one of these 

 had stated that he had not only heard the cuckoo near there 

 some three weeks previously, but had driven it out of a 

 withy bed, and, after seeing it on the wing, had heard it call 

 again on alighting. A contribution from myself, dated 

 December 13th, was published immediately below the one 

 just referred to, and since our local edition of the County 

 Chronicle can have only a very limited circulation among 

 naturalists, I venture to reproduce it here. It ran as follows : 

 " With reference to Mr. James Day's note under the above 

 heading in your issue of December 9th, it is, of course, an 

 extremely rare occurrence for a cuckoo to be either seen or 

 heard in Britain at any time during the winter, although it is 

 not altogether unprecedented. In January, 1901, the late 

 Mr. Frederick 0. P. Cambridge shot, at Redhorn Quay, 

 Poole Harbour, a bird whose identity had puzzled him, 

 and he and other ornithologists who examined it were aston- 

 ished to find that it was a veritable, though immature, cuckoo. 

 Last winter further surprises were in store for us. for it was 

 recorded in the pages of this journal that a cuckoo was seen 

 by Mr. John Green in his garden at Wareham on New Year's 

 Day, and was subsequently heard by his son in Bestwall 

 Woods, and, further, that in this latter locality, which is 

 near Wareham, Mr. A. G. Orchard saw, on February 6th, a 

 cuckoo following a titlark, and, on searching, discovered the 



