The Zoologist — June, 1874, 4035 



Hoopoe at Knotts Green, Leyton. — It may interest your readers to hear 

 that a fine hoopoe was seen feeding to-day for two or three hours ou the 

 lawn, about a hundred yards from the di'awing-room windows, in company 

 with starlings, blackbirds and thrushes. It was very wild, and when dis- 

 turbed flew to the tops of the highest trees, and after a short time flew down 

 again. Its action whilst feeding was very similar to that of a starling, and 

 it appeared to extract many worms from the ground, softened as it was by 

 a recent shower. — H. A. Barclay; Knotts Green, Leyton, Essex, May 3,1874. 



Cackoo in Confinement. — In the 'Zoologist' for January (S. S. 3833) 

 inquiry is made about a cuckoo in confinement, which belonged to myself, 

 and I am sorry to have delayed my reply so long. Soon after I wrote that 

 statement about my live cuckoo, it got its head between the bars of the 

 cage and hung itself. I have made several attempts to keep cuckoos, but 

 do not remember ever getting one to live over March, when they have died 

 from cramp or scours. My method of feeding them has been with small 

 pieces of lean beef dipped into water, small worms, small snails, caterpillars 

 (not smooth green ones, as they do not seem to like them), boiled egg, and 

 (the very best of all) meal-worms and the beetles that are found witli them. 

 I found it necessary to use a few meal-worms every day, or the bird appeared 

 very dull. If plenty of them could be procured, say a dozen per day through 

 the year, with the addition of other food, it would turn out successful. The 

 birds that I have kept have always been in good plumage. — W. Stafford; 

 Godalming, Surrey. 



Swallows roosting ou Rushes. — There are vast quantities of rushes, &c., 

 growing in and near the river here, and as an old man once phrased it, 

 " The spire-beds is an uncommon place for birds in the ' fall.' " At the end 

 of summer and late into the autumn I have noticed numbers of wagtails 

 about these reeds, in the evenings, flitting from one part of the " bed " to 

 the other, and presenting a very pretty and interesting sight to an amateur 

 ornithologist like myself; but the number of wagtails, though considerable, 

 was nothing in comparison to the countless hundreds of the swallow tribe 

 I have sometimes seen. They, as Mr.Whitaker describes (Zool. S. S. 3314), 

 would settle down and on the least disturbance fly up in a cloud, with a 

 noise and apparent confusion. These performances were always gone through 

 late in the evenings, and at the time when the main body of the Hirundinge 

 were congregating previous to their departure. From this habit doubtless 

 arose the supposition that many of the tribe hybernated in the mud in the 

 bed of the river. — G. B. Corhin. 



Prolonged Existence of a Domestic Hen without Food. — A month ago 

 Mr. Barnard, of the 'Hand and Spear Hotel,' Weybridge, missed a fine 

 black Spanish hen, and it was given up as lost. However, on a large heap 

 of hay being removed from the spot where it had been placed, e.xactly a 

 month and four days previously, the hen was found to have been buried 



