FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 127 



the worms from a ditch full of damp leaf mould about 

 100 yards from the nest and did not attempt to go elsewhere. 

 They had left the nest on the 16th May, the next time we 

 saw it. 

 Cyanecula suecica (The Arctic Blue Throat). 



At about 9.0 a.m. on May 2, 1914, my niece, Miss Dorothy 

 Rogers, saw, sitting on the branch of an elm in my garden at 

 Montevideo, Chickerell, near Weymouth, a few feet from her 

 window, a bird which she described very accurately and 

 afterwards identified from Morris as a Bluebreast (Sylvia 

 suecica). I do not know of any other British bird with which 

 it could be confused, and feel no doubt of the correctness of 

 her observation, especially as it remained on the same branch 

 for several minutes, moving about a little and turning so 

 as to shew both sides. This species is said to be migratory 

 and to be found in most parts of Europe, including France, 

 in the summer, and has been recorded occasionally in England 

 and once in Dorset (J. C. Dale, " Naturalist " ii., p. 275). 

 Miss Rogers describes the throat as being entirely blue, 

 corresponding to the form wolfii, which is noted in Mansel- 

 Ple3^dell's " Birds of Dorsetshire " as being, according to 

 Harting, the same species as suecica and leucocyanea in a 

 different phase of plumage. She also described the bill as 

 yellow, thereby differing from Morris' figure, which makes it 

 brown (1851 edition), but in the description he says it is 

 yellowish with dark brown tip. (N.M.R.) 



[The above bird was evidently a cock. R. B. Sharpe says 

 (Brit. Birds, Vol. 1, p. 279, 1896), " Two species of Blue 

 Throats are recognised, one with a red spot (C. suecica) and 

 one with a white spot (C. cyanecula). The latter is not nearly 

 so widespread as the former bird, and only occurs in Central 

 Europe, scarcely reaching as far east as Russia, but visiting 

 Northern Africa and Palestine in winter, recurring in Gilgit, 

 and wintering sparingly in India." In Harting 's " Handbook 

 of British Birds " (2nd edition), published in 1901, Harting 

 uses leucocyanea Brehm as cyanecula, but says the three forms 

 have been considered distinct, and inferentially abandons 



