The Zoologist — Januarv, 1874. 3833 



at Shrewsbury. The bird is a native of Central and Southern Europe, 

 Western Asia and North Africa.— Editor of ' Field; Nov. 22, 1873.] 



Cuckoo in Confinemeut. — I hope Mr. Stafford will let the readers of the 

 'Zoologist' know how his young cuckoo prospers (S. S. 3788). On two 

 occasions we have endeavoured to keep cuckoos in confinemeut, but in 

 neither case has the attempt been altogether successful. In July of last 

 year (1872) a farmer brought my sister a young bird, in North Lancashire, 

 which he bad found by a roadside near the nest where it had been reai'ed. 

 For several months it appeared to be in good health, but exhibited the same 

 restlessness and longing to be away which Mr. Stafford mentions. It 

 received the greatest attention at the hands of my sister, and for some time 

 refused to feed itself. Caterpillars were its favourite morsel, which were 

 always greedily accepted, but not devoured without ceremony. Picking them 

 up crosswise in its bill, the cuckoo regularly proceeded to render them soft 

 and digestible by passing them several times backwards and forwards 

 between its mandibles ; after which process they were swallowed head or tail 

 first, as the case might be. Worms also formed part of cuckoo's diet, but 

 were not received with the same relish nor eaten in the same careful manner. 

 Throughout the winter soaked bread, egg and raw meat were its diet ; but 

 apparently this — or some other unknown circumstance — disagreed with it. 

 In February or March of this year (1873) it lost almost all its feathers, and 

 died on the 22nd of April, nine months after its capture. — Hugh P. Hornby; 

 35, Norfolk Street, Strand. 



late Stay of House Martius. — Ou the 22nd of November, and on 

 several previous days, four martins were actively flying about the church- 

 yard here ; the night of the 22nd, however, was very cold and frosty, and on 

 the morning of the 23rd, as I entered my church-door, one — no doubt, of 

 these same birds — lay dead on the church-steps, evidently having died of 

 exhaustion from cold. The other three were seen for several days longer, 

 when I again found one dead not far off; since that the remaining two have 

 disappeared ; probably they, too, have died. Those I found dead were 

 quite young, I should say not fledged for more than two or three weeks. 

 I imagine that most of the over-late occurrences of martins and swallows 

 noticed year by year are of very young birds, unequal to the task of migrating 

 with the old ones. — 0. P. Cambridge. 



Bouse Martin near Aylesbury on tlie 5tli of Deccuiber. — Yesterday, 

 whilst walking with a shooting party at Hartwell, near Aylesbury, I noticed 

 a house martin merrily hawking for flies for about half an hour. — H. 

 Harpur Crewe; Drayton Beaucluunp Eectory, Triiig, December 6, 1873, 



Scarcity and late Stay of Martins and Swallows at Selborne.-I have 

 two remarks to make with regard to the hiruudines this year. The first 

 is that they have been remarkably few in this neighbourhood. The other 

 is the remarkable lateness of their departure. I received the other day a 



