2680 , The Zoologist— July, 1871. 



house martin, 16th ; cuckoo, 18th ; swift, May 10th ; spotted flycatcher, 

 18th; landrail, 25th. We generally have four or five nests of the 

 nightingale in our garden, but this year, after staying a few days, for 

 some unaccountable reason, they left us again, returning after ten days' 

 absence for a few days, when they again disappeared, and have not since 

 returned. — A. H. Sniee; Carshalton, June 3, 1871. 



Arriral of Migrauts. — Chiffchaff. — Not observed till the 7tli of April — a 

 very late date, but the weather had been unseasonably cold. 



Swallow and Martin. — I heard of a swallow being seen the first week in 

 April, but I obsei-ved none till the 14th, and no martins until the 23rd. 



Redstart. — On the 16th of April saw first redstart. 



Nightingale. — First heard at St. Lawrence on the 13th of April, and they 

 were in full song by the '25 th in this neighbourhood. 



Willow Wren. — Seen in the garden on the 23rd of April. 



Gray Flycatcher. — First seen on the 13tli of May. — Henry Hadfield ; 

 Ventnor, Isle of Wight, May 17, 1871. 



Arriral of migrants. — March 25th, 1871. Saw wheatear. April 12th. Saw 

 swallow. 15th. Heard willow wren. 16th. Heard tree pipit and 

 whitetbroat. 20th. Heard garden warbler. 21st. Saw yellow wagtail. 

 27th. Heard notes of female cuckoo ; saw whincbat. 29th. Saw blackcap. 

 SOth. Heard male cuckoo and sedge warbler. May 4th. Corn crake 

 killed by flying against the telegraph-wire. 7th. Heard wood warbler 

 and lesser whitetbroat. 17th. Saw flycatcher; a pair of goatsuckers 

 seen. June 4th. One swift. — George Rohsrts; Lofthouse, near Wake- 

 field. 



mottled and Red Owl. — Lord Clifton, in making some further observa- 

 tions on the little owl seen at Cobham in April, 1870 (Zool. S. S. 2606), 

 remarks, " Captain Hadfield says that the mottled owl is very little, if at 

 all, larger than the scops." What I said, or intended to say, — for on 

 referring to the note in question (S. S. 2181), I find " Strix ntevia" mis- 

 printed for " Strix asio," — was that it might be Strix passerina, of the same 

 size (within an inch or so) as Strix asio. Lord Clifton thinks it might 

 have been the red owl that he saw — " the httle owl of Carolina described by 

 Catesby, exactly corresponding to the red owl, and to my bird, of the size 

 of a jackdaw." But I must remind your con*espondent that the jackdaw is 

 fourteen and a half inches in length — the exact size, not of the red owl, but 

 of Strix otus. Lord Clifton quotes more than one writer to prove that the 

 length of the red owl is ten and a half inches ; but " these authors, gene- 

 rally very trustworthy in their measurements," must have been mistaken, 

 as Wilson tells us it is but eight and a half inches. It being now impossible, 

 as the Editor justly remarks, to obtain any precise information, we must 

 wait for a second advent of the owl. With regard to the roughlegged 

 buzzard, Lord Clifton frankly admits that he was in error, as I had 



