384 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
the 12th August. I saw a pair of these birds here last summer. They 
were nesting in the crevice of a rock on a hill-side covered with heath, at 
an elevation of about 800 feet above sea-level, and brought out their young. 
The keeper had observed a pair of pigeons every year in the same quarter, 
breeding, and reported them to me, but until now did not succeed in 
shooting a specimen, and neither he nor I could get near enough to 
determine whether they were Blue Rocks or Stock Doves. Taking this 
report in connection with the first known occurrence of the species in 
Ireland in October, 1875, in the County of Down, which I had the honour 
to report to ‘ The Zoologist’ soon after (February, 1876, p. 4798), and with 
another in the same county last June, which 1 believe Mr. Darragh, of 
Belfast, has already communicated to you, it does appear probable that the 
extension of the Stock Dove northward in England within the last ten 
years, as chronicled in the columns of ‘ The Zoologist,’ has led to its further 
extension across the narrow channel, to the north-eastern parts of this 
island.— CLERmont (Ravensdale Park, Newry). 
[The occurrence of the Stock Dove in Ireland is very noteworthy, as 
until within the last three years it was quite unknown there. A specimen 
was shot last year in the Co. Down, and presented by Mr. A. O'D. Taylor 
to the Belfast Museum. During the present summer, as we learn from 
Mr. Darragh, a pair bred near Comber, in the same county, and a young 
one, shot after it had left the nest, was obtained by him also for the Belfast 
Museum.—Eb. | 
ImrrativE Powers oF tHE Warnenat.—On the 15th May last, as my 
brother and I were taking a walk in the fields near Wilsden, we observed 
a Whinchat, Sawicola rubetra, fly from a wall into an oak tree a little in 
advance of us. When within about forty yards from the tree we sat down, 
and my brother called my attention to its singing. ‘To my surprise, it was 
imitating the song of other birds. During the short time we listened, it 
imitated in quick succession the song of the Wren, Song Thrush, Chaffinch, 
Corn Bunting, Tree Lark, Greenfinch, and Starling so successfully that the 
most practised ear could scarcely have detected the difference. I remarked 
it again on May 17th; but a swollen stream separating me from the white- 
thorn in which it was singing, I heard it to great disadvantage. I could 
hear, however, a few strains which resembled the song of a Linnet, the two 
shrill call-notes of the Yellow Wagtail, and a note, which it kept repeating, 
very much after the manner of a Cole Tit. There was no mistake as to 
the identity of the species in question.—E. P. P. Burrerrizxp (Wilsden, 
near Bradford). 
OrnitHoLoeicaL Notes From DorsErsairE.—With reference to the 
Cormorant of unusual plumage, referred to in ‘The Zoologist’ for July 
(p. 280), as seen by Mr: Gatcombe at Wembury, and the same or a similar 
one by Mr. Clogg on the Cornish coast, I think it probable I saw the bird 
