OCCASIONAL NOTES. 449 
struck down. Mr. Wyatt, birdstuffer, of Banbury, has it to preserve for 
me.—C. Marrirw Prior (Bedford). 
Cuckoo CALLING IN SePTEMBER.— On the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th of 
September a Cuckoo was heard uttering its usual spring cry in this parish, 
to the no small consternation of some of the inhabitants ; for in this retired 
village on the Downs anything unusual creates alarm, and this unwonted 
call of the Cuckoo in September is supposed to prognosticate I know not 
what calamities, one woman declaring that she cannot sleep at night for 
thinking of the troubles indicated! The fact, however (apart from its 
supposed omen) of a Cuckoo calling in September is sufficiently remarkable 
_ to deserve record. That it was a bond fide bird, and not a boy, I am 
perfectly certain, both because it was heard on the same day in widely 
separated parts of the parish, and because I listened to it in my own 
orchard, now at one end and in a few moments at the farther corner, to 
which no boy could have carried him in the interval, even if he could 
have escaped being seen. Moreover, I flatter myself that I can recognize 
the note of a Cuckoo, and distinguish between that and the vox humana, 
though I make no pretensions to accuracy of ear. At the same time 
I regret that the thick foliage intervening prevented my catching sight of 
the bird, as I vainly attempted to do; not, however, for my own satisfaction, 
for I was perfectly convinced, but for the more complete evidence to lay 
before others. Assuming that the call was undoubtedly that of a Cuckoo, 
the question arises, was it an old bird, who ought not only to have ceased 
his song (?) two months ago, but to have been well on his travels to the 
South long since? or was it a precocious bird of the year, assaying to 
imitate his real parent’s note, to which he was not yet, by right of age, 
entitled ? Whichever he was, he was very assiduous in calling during the 
four days he spent in this parish, and he called loudly and well, and with 
all the air of a practised performer.— ALFRED CHARLES Situ (Yatesbury 
Rectory, Calne). 
BLUE-THROATED WARBLER NEAR Lowestorr. — Through the kindness 
of R. C. Fowler, Esq., of Gunton, near Lowestoft, who allowed me to see a 
specimen which has recently come into his possession, I am enabled to 
record another instance of the occurrence in England of the Blue-throated 
Warbler, Cyanecula suecica. It was obtained in July last, by George Boon 
(gamekeeper to Mr. Fowler), who found it strangled in a fishing-net strewn 
out on Gunton Denes, which lie off the shore just to the north of Lowestoft. 
It is a male bird, belonging to the Scandinavian form which has the spot 
on the breast red. Comparing this specimen with Yarrell’s description of 
the species, I observe that the “line of white” he mentions below the 
black bar of the breast is in this example very indistinctly marked, indeed 
it is hardly traceable; and examining it by the side of Gould’s plate of the 
species, the principal difference to be noted is that the black bar on the 
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