Birds. 9281 
equally near to the house, and then took flight, and apparently left the garden 
altogether. The motions of this little climber were characterized by wonderful 
agility and considerable restlessness, both as it ascended the trunks of the apple trees 
and their principal boughs, and also as it flitted from twig to twig, the latter being an 
action to which it appeared much addicted. On one occasion I observed that it 
descended the trunk of an apple tree for several inches, progressing tail foremost in its 
downward progress, with the utmost facility. At another time, in ascending a sloping 
branch, its upward conrse encountered a sparrow, which was perched on the bough, 
but which immediately took flight when the woodpecker came up to it. I observed 
that the bird in climbing propped itself on its tail, and also tapped the bark with its 
bill, holding its head at right angles to the trunk of the tree, in true woodpecker 
fashion, but I do not thiuk that in doing this it attempted to pierce the bark, but merely 
to explore its crevices in search of any insects which might there be harboured. 
I ought to add that in the neighbourhood of the garden where I watched this very 
beautiful little bird, there is an avenue of large elm trees, which it in all probability 
makes its home. —J. H. Gurney. 
Scarcity of the Common Swift in the Neighbourhood of Beverley in 1864.—Last 
summer I recorded in tbe pages of the ‘Zoologist’ (Zool. 8726) the comparative 
scarcity of this bird. The correctness of my observations was questioned by your 
talented correspondent, Mr. Norman, of Hull, who stated that he had seen many of 
these birds in that locality (Zool. 8767). I can, however, only hold myself answerable 
for, and vouch for the correctness of, those circumstances and events which come 
under my own observation ; and I consider it to be the duty of all students of Nature, 
in common justice to their own interests and those of the glorious study they have 
espoused, to weigh most carefully all matters committed to print. Sul the most 
cautious observer is liable to error, and feeling the full force of these remarks applied 
to myself, I have most carefully noted all such matters of interest during the present 
summer. The result of my observations on the arrival and numbers of our migratory 
birds is to convince me more firmly than ever that they are decidedly less numerous, 
both on their arrival and during the breeding season, than in former years. With 
reference to the swift especially this remark holds good, for although I am driving 
about the country on all sides of Beverley every day of the week, I have thus far seen 
only four specimens of this bird. I have heard of several being seen hawking over the 
River Hull, but I have not seen them myself, and I can ouly state, with every con- 
fidence as such, facts that have come under my own observation. These remarks on 
the scarcity of the common swift, &c., of course only apply to the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of Beverley.— W. W. Boulton; Beverley, August 6, 1864. 
Abundance of the Swift at Leominster.—Mr. Boulton’s observations on the mci 
of the swift in the neighbourhood of Beverley, of the accuracy of which I have no 
doubt, induces me to publish a fact of an opposite character, namely, that the number of 
swifts at Leominster, in Herefordshire, is this year much larger than I have ever known 
it. Swifts, during the month of July, were, compared with swallows, as three to one, 
and, compared with martins, as two to one: it was no uncommon thing to see a hun- 
dred swifts on the wing at once, and these scattered widely, not collected into little 
screaming companies, as we so frequently see them.— Edward Newman. 
Scarcity of some of the Summer Birds of Passage at Moundsmere in 1864.—About 
Moundsmere and Bradley, last year, I could see any evening in June from twenty to 
VOL. XXII. 3H 
