The Zoologist — February, 1870. 2027 



Iceland Gull. Ou the 6ili I saw an Iceland Riill iu the Plymouih Sound. — 

 J. Gutcombe ; Stonehouse, Plymouth, December 31, 1869. 



Dales of the Breeding of Birds on Tyneside for 1869. — Egcs of the following 

 birds were obt.iined on the dates subjoined : — March •22nd, loiif^eared owl ; 26tb, tawny 

 owl, ciishal and rook; 28il), common thrush; 30tli, peewit ; April 3rd, missel thrusli 

 and dipper; Ilili, woodcock; loth, snipe and pheasant; 17ih, blackbird and common 

 wren; ISili, curlew and jackdaw ; 20th, chaffinch; 2olh, robin, longtailed tit and 

 goldencresied wren; May Isl, golden plover, pied wagtail and rinu; ouzel; 9th, par- 

 tridge, creeper, kestrel and sparrowhawk ; 10th, marsh tit and grasshopper warbler; 

 16lli, French linnet, blackheaded gull, gray wagtail and twite; 22nd, common sand- 

 piper; 25lh, wood wreu and cole tit; June lOih, corn crake and night hawk. — 

 Tliomas Thompson; Winlalon. 



Slarling feeding on the Grubs of Phyllopertha. — Two or three acres of my lawn 

 are riddled throughout by the bills of the starlings seeking the grubs of the small 

 brown chaffer which so spoils our roses, especially the yellow ones. I notice that they 

 gape when they put their bills into the earth, as if to open a hole that they may see in 

 between the mandibles. I have always had starlings here, but they seem only of late 

 years to have discovered this rich mine. Some years ago the place was overrun by 

 these beetles, and I have seen them issuing new-born from the ground by tens of 

 thousands: they are now scarce, and the grass of the lawn is much improved. It is 

 just when the rooks are thus destroying the si'ub of the cockchaffer that they are shot 

 down as their enemies by the farmers. Two months ago 1 luul a bee-eater here 

 feeding upon the yew-berries. No locusts. — W. C. Hewitson; Oatlands, January 26, 

 1870. 



Eggs of the Cuckoo. — I do not hear of any vari-coloured eggs of the cuck'xi. 

 I have seen several of the eggs here since the controversy, but they were all gray, like 

 those of the pied wagtail. — Id. 



Pilchards in Mount's Bay on Christmas Day. — Several large shoals of pilchards 

 (Clupea pilchardus) were cajitured off Mulli(m, in .Mount's Bay, on the 25th of 

 December. The occurrence of shoals of pilchards off the Cornish coast in December, 

 and even later in the winter, is not unusual, but they generally appear east of the 

 Lizard. Two years ago a shoal was taken in Truro river (a salt-water estuary) in 

 February. Last year there was a large catch of pilchards at St. Ives in the second 

 week in December. In 1834 there was a catch off St. Michael's Mount in the week 

 before Christmas; but the present catch is, I believe, the latest in any season recorded 

 in Mount's Bay. It yet remains to be seen whether this fish is getting later throughout 

 its whole season of migration year after year (it certainly is in its arrival), or whether 

 a Christmas fishing season is simjdy the result of a longer watching than usual on the 

 part of the fisherman. The fish were very fine, and in excellent condition. There 

 were several small mackerel with ihe shoals, but this is not unusual. — Thomas 

 Cornish; Petizance, Di^eember 2^, 1869. 



Note on the Odour of Cynipid<£ and other Hynienoplera. — On the loth of 

 November I mentioned at the meeting of the Entomological Society that 1 had 



