9024 Birds. 
useless, dirty, disgusting bird in captivity, when not well supplied with food eating its 
own excrement. No other bird was seen in company with it, but about two months 
since two were seen at Moreton, a village about five miles distant, one of which was 
shot, aad is in the possession of Joseph Leyland, taxidermist, of Liverpool, and it is 
supposed by some that my nephew's specimen is the one that escaped the gun at 
Moreton.— Nicholas Cooke ; Spring View, Liscard, Cheshire, February 26, 1864. 
Cuckoo in Confinement.—On the 20th instant I observed a live specimen of the 
cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) in the possession of a person residing in this city, who 
informed me he had succeeded iu rearing it (it being taken from a nest last year); it 
feeds on small pieces of raw beef, which it takes from his hands. This is the only 
instance I ever heard of its being kept in captivity in this country during the winter 
season.—7. E. Gunn; Norwich, February 22, 1864. 
[For a similar instance, see Zool. 655.—H. Newman.) 
Cuckoo in January—The false alarms you received of the cuckoo appearing in 
January, or being heard in that month, ought, in my opinion, to be noticed by the 
Editor on the 1st of April, a very appropriate day for canards of all sorts; but the only 
excuse that can be made for such communications is that there are certain boys in 
the country who have good musical ears and voices, and thereby have deceived many 
others, in striking the note of the cuckoo, at from about two to four hundred yards 
distance, with the nearly proper key of “ B flat,” which key, with very little variation, 
is the one which all the cuckoos sing in at the time of their arrival. Towards the 
28th of June, and after, the musical or singing part is altered to a coarse, hoarse, dis- 
cordant scream. The Editor is quite right in demanding a sight of the bird, dead or 
alive—H. W. Newman; IHillside, Cheltenham, February 26, 1864. 
Great Spotted Woodpecker near Beverley —This is decidedly a rare bird in our 
neighbourhood. I have never seen in all more than five or six specimens shot within 
a radius of twelve miles of Beverley. On the Lst of January a mature female speci- 
men of the great spotted woodpecker (Picus major) was shot in the Burton Busbes, 
on Westwood, one of the common pastures adjoining the town of Beverley—W. W. 
Boulton; Beverley, March 9, 1864. 
Abundance of the Bittern in Norfolk.—As many as six specimens of the bittern, in 
guod plumage, have been shot in Norfolk during the week.—7. EZ. Gunn; Norwich, 
January 16, 1864.—In ‘ Corresponding Naturalists’ Circular. 
Note on the Occurrence in Great Britain of the American Wigeon and of the Red- 
winged Starling.—In the ‘ Zoologist’ of this month (Zool. 8962) reference is made to 
the claim of the American wigeon toa place in the list of British birds, and to the spe- 
cimen procured several years since in Leadenhall Market, by Mr. A. D. Bartlett. This 
specimen was purchased by me from Mr. Bartlett: it is a male in full plumage, and 
therefore there can be no mistake as to the species; and having been obtained long 
before the commencement of the present system of sending over wild fowl from 
America in the flesh, there can be no doubt of its having been killed either in the 
British Islands or on the Continent of Europe. I may add that I am interested in 
observing, in the same number of the ‘ Zoologist’ (Zool. 8951), a notice of the recent 
occurrence in Sussex of another American bird, the so-called “ redwinged starling,” as 
my collection also contains the first-recorded British-killed specimen of this bird, 
which was obtained several years since at Barton Turf, in Norfolk.—J. H. Gurney ; 
March 11, 1864. 
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