OCCASIONAL NOTES. 25 
“ That's the bird—that’s the bird I saw! I am certain of it!” Mr. Nor- 
wood could not, however, possibly leave that evening, and on Sunday they 
were nowhere to be seen, and I much regret that I cannot glean any further 
information concerning them; but I have no doubt in my own mind—neither 
has Mr. Norwood—that they were Hoopoes, and apparently they must have 
been bred somewhere in the neighbourhood, possibly in some of the osier- 
stumps on these little islands, which he very quiet and undisturbed at that 
spot. It was on Saturday, either the 9th or 16th of June, that Holbeck 
saw the birds; but I was not informed of it until last month, otherwise 
T might have been able to glean some further information concerning 
them. I may add that the Hoopoe is not altogether an uncommon bird 
in this district. I have the following notices of its occurrence in our more 
immediate neighbourhood :—One shot at West Knoyle by Thomas Grey 
in 1865; a male bird shot at Breamore in May, 1869; one shct.on 
Mr. Crook’s farm at Dean about 187]; one seen at West Knoyle by 
Mr, E. Baker in 1872; one shot at Upton Scudamore, and stuffed by King 
of Warminster, in 1873: one shot at Mere by Richard Brine on April 2nd, 
1873; one picked up dead on Mr. Rawlence’s farm at Wilton in 1874. 
This last bird being also one of a little party of these birds shot at on the 
race-course, just above his farm, some days previously —ArtuurR P. Morres 
(Britford Vicarage, Salisbury). 
Kee or toe Pati Swirr, Cypselus pallidus (Shelley)—I am not 
aware that the egg of this species has ever been described, and as I have 
an undoubted specimen—one of the pair taken by Favier in 1861 at 
Tangier—TI venture to give some particulars as to its measurement, &c. 
Favier says, in his MS. notes (vide Irby’s ‘ Ornithology of the Straits of 
Gibraltar’), ‘This Swift is found near Tangier on passage, crossing to 
Europe in April and May. Some remain to breed; but it is the least 
common of the species, being seen alone or in pairs in company with 
C. apus, which circumstance makes it difficult to distinguish them. I 
found a pair in July, 1861, uesting in company with some House Martins, 
Chelidon urbiea; the nest was simply an old nest of that Martin, which the 
Swifts had appropriated, and contained two eggs of the usual Cypselus shape, 
their longitudinal circumference being 64—66 millimetres.” I obtained 
my specimen from Olcese, Favier’s successor, while I was quartered at 
Gibraltar in 1873. It has a label, in Favier’s indifferent hand-writing, 
“ Oypselus murinus,” that being the name (applied by Brehm in 1855 to a 
bird presumably of this species) by which he knew the bird. It agrees 
exactly with his measurement, and measures ‘92 x -61 inches, being, of 
course, pure white in colour and without any gloss. This is somewhat 
smaller than average eggs of C. apus, which measure ‘94 X ‘65 inches; 
but the total length of C. pallidus is only 6 inches, while that of C. apus is 
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