THE ZooLocist—Avcust, 1876. 5039 
this to be the regular time? Iam happy to say that up to the present time 
the twins continue to flourish, and on the morning of the 18th of June— 
they being on that day four weeks old—I for the first time found them out, 
in the outer part of the cage. A point I forgot to mention in my last letter is 
the great difference in size at birth of the wild and domestic breeds, which 
exceeds, or is at least more noticeable, than that between the adult animals. 
Will Mr. Harvie-Brown tell us whether the wild cat he mentions (S. S. 
4825) has presented her owner with the promised litter of “real ringtailed 
squealers,” aud if so whether he knows the length of the gestation? I wrote 
to Mr. Stuart, who has charge of Lord Seafield’s wild cats at Balmacaan, 
but he has never noticed the length of the gestation, and I know of no other 
place where they have been bred in captivity.—Alfred Heneage Cocks ; 
42, Great Cumberland Place, Hyde Park, June 27, 1876. 
Pied Rats.—There is at present at this place a brood of pied rats (Mus 
decumanus)—how many I do not know, but I have shot two to stuff, and 
there are at least three others left. They are all marked in a similar 
manner, having a patch of white on each side covering the ribs,—John 
Selater ; Castle Eden, July 20, 1876. 
Our Summer Migrants in Cornwall.—In the course of upwards of thirty 
years’ observation of our spring songsters, I never remember such a scarcity 
in numbers; nor such a paucity and poverty of song in the few that have 
visited us. The abrupt shortened song of the blackcap scarcely amounted 
to a song, and rarely exceeded five notes, and there was a continued feeble- 
ness in the expression of the passages which seemed to belong to every 
individual. The whitethroat was very late; the song was heard on the 3rd 
of May for the first time, and, singular enough, I heard the blackcap’s first 
attempt at song on the same day. The chiffchaff’s immigration was the 
latest I ever remember, but I speak entirely from its song: it is quite 
possible that it might have been with us all the winter, which is not 
unfrequently the case—but my notes apply to the first appearance of the 
songs of birds: I remarked the song first on the 83rd of April, and only 
once, but on the following day they were generally distributed all about in 
every thicket. I do not think that there are more than half-a-dozen willow 
wrens in the district; they were very late in their arrivals here and very 
chary in their song. “The sedge warbler was also very late, and I heard its 
song for the first time on the 27th of May. We have no redstarts, garden 
warblers, lesser whitethroats, or reed warblers in the West of Cornwall, 
and I never but once detected the wood wren, and it was evidently in statu 
migratu, as it was not observed afterwards. I have never observed the tree 
pipit’s song in the Land’s End district, although it is a common bird in the 
eastern part of the county: I remarked the song of this species when I was 
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