2608 The Zoologist — May, 1871. 



longtailed tit (Mecistura caudata) has been anywhere noticed as it has been 

 in our neighbourhood : for the last two years I have not taken a nest or 

 even seen a specimen. In 18G8 these birds were common, both in summer 

 and winter. I think the disappearance somewhat remarkable. — E. C. Moor. 



Bedgesparrow singing by Plight. — March 25. Returning from the 

 Bealings Station at 9.10 p.m. on Saturday evening, I was somewhat 

 astoiyshed on hearing a bedgesparrow [Motacilla modularis) all of a sudden, 

 from a hedge quite near me, utter its usual spring song, just as if it had 

 been disturbed in its sleep. Is it usual for them to sing thus ? — Id. 



Wliitc Wagtail at Piortham Burrows. — When at Northam Burrows last 

 week I observed, intermingled with the pied wagtails which frequent the 

 sand-hills adjoining the beach, a few individuals of the white wagtail, and 

 succeeded in obtaining two good specimens for my collection. The two 

 species bear an interesting comparison when associated together, and I can 

 scarcely think that any person who has seen them side by side, under as 

 favourable opportunities for observation as I was fortunate enough to obtain, 

 could doubt the identity of each. The difference in plumage, although 

 sufficiently pronounced after death, appears still greater in life; the pearly 

 gray back and more extended white of the forehead and cheeks of the white 

 species, showing in strong contrast to the uuiform black of the upper parts 

 of our native bird. I observe that most authors treat the white wagtail as 

 the smaller bird of the two : this may be so generally, but certainly not 

 invariably, as one of my specimens is larger, and the other quite as large, 

 as two specimens of the pied wagtail obtained at the same time. The white 

 species is of a slenderer make, and, as far as my observation goes, is livelier 

 in its habits and movements. It vibrates its taU when on the ground more 

 frequently, and walks more rapidly than the other species, takes to flight 

 more readily, and is more vociferous, although its note is not quite so shrill 

 as that of its native congener. All the individuals that I saw (about six in 

 number) were, from the clearness and depth of colouring of their plumage, 

 unmistakably males, and (although there were several of both sexes of the 

 pied wagtail) I feel confident, from my close and continued observation, that 

 there were no females in that locality, from which it may be concluded that 

 the flock in question was either a casual immigration of this species on its 

 way to its breeding haunts elsewhere, or that I had lighted on a small bevy 

 of males immediately upon their arrival in this country for nesting purposes, 

 and before they were joined by any of the opposite sex. — Marcus S. C. 

 Rickards: Clifton, April 21, 1871. 



Crested Tit on the Spcy, — I received to-day (April 20th) three crested 

 tits [Lophophanes cristatus), in the flesh, from a locality on the Spey. 

 I think of resident British birds this is the very rarest, for it appears 

 to be confined to one limited locality in Eastern luvemesshire. — J. H. 

 Gurney, jun. 



