9282 Birds. 
thirty pairs of swifts, but this year I have not seen more than three birds of this spe- 
cies at one time, either at Moundsmere or Bradley, except on the evening of July 22, 
when a vast flock flew over in a S.W. direction. In the villages near, I am assured, 
they have been as numerous as ever this summer. I have not seen more than balf a 
dozen spotted flycatchers in this neighbourhood all the season ; and, as far as my ob- 
servation goes, I have not seen a single redbacked shrike about our hedges since last 
September: this I think rather remarkable, as a nest of young birds were hatched and 
allowed to fly off unmolested last year, the nest being built near Bradley. I saw a 
single bird of this species sitting on a hawthorn-hedge near Salisbury in May last— 
Anthony S. Bradby ; Moundsmere, Hants, September 22, 1864. 
Martins congregating in August—On the 13th of August last, while passing along 
Willesden Lane, I noticed about two hundred martins (Hirundo urbica) collected on 
the roof and chimneys of a new three-storied house. I could not distinguish any 
swallows (Hirundo rustica) among them. The weather on that day was fine, sunny 
and hot. Is not this rather early for martins to prepare for their departure ?— Charles 
B. Wharton; Willesden, Middlesex, September 2, 1864. 
Food of Young Cuckoo.—A short time ago I shot a young male euckoo which 
had attained its full length of fourteen inches, but wasj still attended and fed by its 
foster-parents—a pair of hedgesparrows. On examining its stomach I was surprised 
to find that it contained a mass of fine vegetable fibres, apparently the roots of 
some plant, closely matted together: there were a number of the wing-cases of 
small beetles and a few larve mixed with it, the whole mass being about the size of a 
small walnut. Have-any of your correspondents observed similar cases, or can any 
of them suggest for what purpose the roots had been swallowed? This specimen has 
already lost most of the reddish brown colour described by Mr. Yarrell as belonging to 
the young bird, but it retains traces of the brown streaks on the greater wing-coverts 
and on the sides of the neck. As observed by Mr. Morris, this change does not seem 
to be the result of moulting, but rather of the wearing away of the tips of the feathers. 
—Edward R. Alston ; Stockbriggs, Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, August 5, 1864. 
[Were not the supposed vegetable fibres the hairs of ursine caterpillars so commonly 
found in the stomachs of cuckoos P—Edward Newman]. 
Partridges in a Tide Mill-Pond.—While at Sidlesham, a few days ago, a rather 
curious incident came under my notice. A covey of five partridges fell, or rather flew, 
into a tide mill-pond there, and were all captured by some boys. I am told that this 
sort of thing has occurred there before. The “ natives” have a notion that partridges 
cannot fly over salt water. The lower part of the pond where this occurred is pretty 
well surrounded by houses, and I am inclined to think that the birds were bewildered, 
and tbat fright was the cause of their settling in the water. I believe the pond covers 
about thirty acres — W. Jeffery, jun. ; Ratham, Chichester, September 9, 1864. 
Great Plover or Stone Curlew near Beverley—On the 4th of June last a very fine 
old female specimen of this plover was sent, in the flesh, for preservation, to Mr. R. 
Richardson, taxidermist, of Beverley. I grieve to say the thick-knee has become quite 
a rara avis on the Yorkshire Wolds, where formerly it was abundant, and where, too, 
the great bustard (now extinct) was no unusual visitant. This specimen of the great 
plover had been shot on the 2nd of June, by a farmer, who presented it to Mr. T. Riley, 
of South Dalton, near Beverley. It was shot near Holme, on Spalding Moor, between 
thirteen and fourteen miles from Beverley. Several specimens have been since observed, 
byt no other has been obtained, the birds being remarkably shy and wary. These 
