THE ZooLocist—Ocroser, 1876. 51038 
hung there for a few seconds; then, much to our astonishment, got 
hold with his bill and pulled himself into the nest. What an 
enormous quantity of fish these sixty old birds and about one 
hundred and eighty young ones would consume! 
On rowing back up the lake we saw a large diver, but were too 
far off to see what kind it was. Near the top of the lake we saw a 
large bird sitting on a dead tree, and on my shouting and waving 
my hat it took wing: it was a magnificent osprey, the first I had 
ever seen alive in its native haunts: it flew steadily up the lake 
side till lost to sight. We also saw a very fine blackbacked gull, 
in full plumage, and lots of common sandpipers all along the lake 
side. On this day we caught two large trout, one weighing eight 
pounds and three-quarters and the other seven pounds and three- 
quarters. 
There is every prospect of a good grouse season, the birds 
being healthy and strong on the wing and the packs large. Last 
winter was the most severe that has been known in Perthshire 
for thirty years, the deaths among the mountain sheep being very 
numerous. 
J. WHITAKER. 
Rainworth Lodge, near Mansfield. 
Notes from Castle Eden. By Mr. Joun Sciater. 
(Continued from S, S, 4989). 
JUNE, 1876. 
Cuckoo.—Walking, on the 2nd, along the sea-beach I saw what 
I at first took for a kestrel hovering over the banks, but on its 
descending out of the glare of the sun it proved to be a cuckoo, 
accompanied by three meadow pipits, which flitted about, chiefly 
in front of her, as if leading her away from their nests; but this 
act of the pipits appeared to me to be of the greatest service to 
the cuckoo; and it was very curious to see how soon she took 
advantage of it, for as soon as they had escorted her to what they 
seemed to think a safe distance they turned back; but the cuckoo 
turned too, and was then led in a contrary direction, the whole 
distance being under three hundred yards. After flying in the same 
manner some ten or a dozen times in those contrary directions the 
cuckoo seemed to know that the object of her search lay within 
