Thk Zoologist — December, 1874. 4259 



of buntings, pipits, larks, wagtails, and other passerines, and regard it as a 

 matter of course, but why a cock robin should take this freak into his head, 

 or rather into his tail, seems perfectly inexplicable. — Edward Newman. 

 Autumnal Migration of the Willow Wren^ Swallow and Blackcap.— On 



the 7th of September the willow wren reappeared, and several were observed 

 in the garden, and the following day numbers had collected and were to be 

 seen in all directions, flitting from tree to tree in search of their insect-food, — 

 seemingly abundant, particularly on the sycamore, — occasionally settHng on 

 the ground, within a few yards of me, in the most confiding manner. Morris 

 remarks, quoting Meyer, that this species is common in North America ; but 

 this is a mistake, or I am greatly at fault, none having been observed by me 

 during a year's residence in Canada, though an allied species, the blue-eyed 

 yellow warbler {Sylvia citrinella) is abundant and widely distributed, having 

 been met with in Newfoundland, in the stunted larch-woods on the barren 

 hills near St. John's : this familiar and interesting species, whose brilliant 

 golden plumage is so attractive to the wanderer, was described in my Canada 

 notes as a true willow wren, though differing from Sylvia Trochilus both in 

 shape and colour; it is a stouter bird, and of a more intense yellow; the 

 flight is not so buoyant and graceful, but its habits are identical : the length, 

 according to Wilson, is five inches ; that of the European species, male five 

 inches, female five inches and one-sixth, which is worthy of note, it being 

 the only Sylvia, as far as I know, except the sedge warbler, of which the 

 female exceeds the male in size. From an early hour on September 13th 

 numerous swallows were seen, their line (^"^ffiglit to the eastward, the wind 

 having veered to that quarter during the nignt, lowering the temperature 

 some degrees : in one hour more swallows were seen than had been observed 

 during the whole summer, and none bred here, and, what is more remark- 

 able, no martin's nests are to be seen, where in former years they abounded ; 

 though the latter species is tolerably abundant, there has, as yet, been no 

 flocking or assembling. Change of temperature has, I believe, notwith- 

 standing the newly-broached theory as to light, caused this early flight, not 

 to say migration, or I may be told that the swallow migrates in October ; 

 however, it could not have been "want of light" that caused this sudden 

 move on the 13th of September, when we have the sun rising at 5.33 and 

 setting at 6.18. On the 13th of October many swallows were seen sporting 

 about as at midsummer, the thermometer being 60° at 9 a. m., and 63° at 

 1 p. M. in the shade. In the afternoon of the 14th several were seen, after 

 a heavy shower, perched on the telegraph-wires, a favourite resort now. 

 A writer in the 'Times' of September 18th wishes to know whether the 

 male blackcap migrates before the female bird, as its moulting is completed 

 two or three weeks earlier. Though I cannot answer the query, I would 

 suggest that further observations be carried on, as the moulting of caged 

 birds is uncertain, irregular, and not to be relied on, much depending on 



