$022 THE ZooLocist—APriL, 1872. 
bab 
the margin is written, in his lordship’s own hand, ‘A mistaken idea.’”— 
Collingwood’s Historical Fauna of Lancashire and Cheshire, p.18. This 
note has been reprinted in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1865, and has appeared in 
various other publications, and yet my friend Mr. Smith is reported to have 
said (S. 8. 2914) that in one case an example had been shot by the grandfather 
of the present Lord Derby. There is no other record of a professed British 
specimen that has not been disproved, yet, in the same report, my friend 
Professor Westwood is made to say Mr. C. Robertson, of Oxford, assured 
him “that he had repeatedly seen the bird in the woods near Clovelly, and 
Mr. Jackson, of New College, had observed it in East Devon.” I think this 
note and the preceding one about hawks and dragonflies, show that entomo- 
logists should now and then glance at what is doing in the sister Science of 
Ornithology, or refrain from all allusion to birds. Mr. Bond and Mr. Weir, 
as proficients in both the ologies, show to great advantage in the report in 
question.— EH. Newman. 
Blackbilled American Cuckoo in Treland.—Within the last few days the 
occurrence of a specimen of the blackbilled American cuckoo (Coceyzus 
erythopthalmus) has been reported to me on such good authority that I 
hasten to make it known, with your permission, to the readers of the 
‘Zoologist.’ Mr. William Darragh, curator of the museum of the Belfast 
Natural History Society, a very experienced practical naturalist, informs 
me that in the end of September last (1871) one of these birds was shot by 
Dr. Rea in the parish of Kilbead, in Antrim, ten miles from Belfast. Mr. 
Darragh examined it closely, comparing it with American skins in his 
museum, and found the distinctions between it and the yellowbilled Ameri- 
can cuckoo clearly marked, and corresponding with those defined by Wilson 
in his ‘ American Ornithology,’ with the exception of the black bar near the 
tips of the tail-feathers, which in the individual in question is not very 
clearly marked. I have examined the volumes of the ‘ Zoologist’ from 
1853, in vain, for a record of this bird as British, but there can be no reason 
why it should be more unlikely to cross the ocean than its relation, the 
yellowbilled cuckoo, which has four times at least accomplished that feat, 
and I believe always at the same time of the year, viz., in August or Sep- 
tember, or that in which this blackbilled specimen made its appearance.— 
Clermont ; March 9, 1872. 
(There can be little doubt that this is the bird mentioned in the February 
number of the ‘ Zoologist ’ (8. S. 2943) by Mr. Blake-Knox.—Z. Newman.] 
Cuckoo near the Sea—I think Mr. Carey has missed the point of Mr. 
Leach’s communication. There is nothing remarkable in hearing a cuckoo 
near the sea, but to hear one in September indicates that it has stayed long 
after its usual time, for the old birds migrate in July.—J. H. Gurney, jun. ; 
Northrepps, Norwich, March 5, 1872. 
Karly Nesting of the Kingfisher—I have twice before sent you notes 
