The Zoologist— January, 1866. 21 



white breast, but the belly is darker and more mixed with black than 

 in the adult. A strongly marked specimen of this age is probably the 

 type of the Cinclus melanogaster of some authors. Mr. Morris 

 describes both the young and adult dipper as having the irides " pale 

 brown with a black ring in the middle " (Brit. Birds, iii. p. 20), but I 

 have looked in vain for this peculiarity. A full investigation of the 

 charges, so often brought against the water ouzel, of feeding on the 

 spawn of salmon and trout, will be found in Mr, F. Biickland's 

 interesting book on " Fish- Hatching" (p. 54), where he shows that, 

 so far from eating the eggs, it in fact protects them, by destroying vast 

 numbers of the water insects and larvge which prey upon the ova. He 

 gives the result of the dissection of more than forty examples, 

 examined by himself, Mr. Gould, and others, many of which were shot 

 on the spawning-beds in various rivers. Of all these birds only one 

 contained a single fish's egg, and that was a diseased one. A meeting 

 of the Zoological Society in February, 186.3, after considering these 

 observations, " fully acquitted the water ouzel of the charges of eating 

 fish-spawn," a verdict which ought to have stopped all further perse- 

 cution of this interesting and neat little bird. 



Cuckoo's Stomach. — Mr. Boulton's remarks on "The Villous 

 Coating of a Cuckoo's Stomach" (Zool. 978-2) seem to call for a re- 

 investigation of this interesting subject. Might not the real nature of 

 the hairs be easily ascertained by the use of the microscope ? The 

 two young cuckoos which I have before mentioned (Zool. 9282 and 

 9709) contained no remains of hairy larvae, and their stomachs have no 

 " villous " coating, although they were both fully grown, a fact which 

 seems to be against the idea that these hairs are a natural growth. And 

 yet, if they are of insect origin, it seems difficult to understand how 

 they could become so regularly arranged and firmly attached to the 

 mucous membrane as Mr. Boullon describes. 



Fieldfare and Woodcock. — Fieldfares were not observed here this 

 season until October 5th. A woodcock was seen on the 25th of the 



same month. 



Edward R. Alston. 



Stockbriggs, Lesmahagow, November 6, 1865. 



Ornithological Notes from Flamhorough . By JofiN Cordeaux, Esq. 



October 16, 1865. There are ie^ situations on the eastern coast 

 more favourable for the observation of our autumnal migratories, on 



