1422 The Zoologist — October, 1868. 



were seen in the garden and neighbouring woods last week. Our lame birds climbed 

 about the cage wilh their bill, like parrots, lifting the larch-cones off the floor, but 

 leaving the larger cones on the cage bottom, holding them with the claw and wrenching 

 the seeds out. They had a curious way of tearing the lamina; or scales off the cones 

 to pieces, after extracting the seeds. — Theodore C. Walker ; Wood-side, Leicester. 



Scarcity of Hirundines, — There seems to be a great complaint of the scarcity of 

 Hirundiues; my experience of the seasons leads me to quite a different conclusion. 

 The swallow (Hirundo rustica) arrived very early: the first was seen on the 29th of 

 March; but the first martin (H. urbica) did not arrive until the 1st of May. Of 

 swallows we have a great increase, and of martins it will be sufficient to say that 

 where there were eight nests last year there were this year above forty, chiefly owing 

 to the additional buildings and the putting of a large projecting eave round the house. 

 I believe, if the protection from weather was made better in any given locality, there 

 would be a large and continued increase. Some years ago, when resident in Lincoln- 

 shire, there was not a martin's nest in the village, but upon the erection of a new 

 vicarage, with projecting eaves, they soon made their appearance, and from a solitary 

 nest increased in three years to above fifty. The martins this year, with the exception 

 of five that had young ones, left the village on the 14th of August, and now (the 7th 

 of September) they have all gone. The swallows have also began to congregate, 

 morning and evening, and to-day they have been basking in the sun, on the slates, 

 the greater part of the day. — /. Ramon; Linton-on-Ouse, York. 



White Woodcock: Correction of an Error. — In my former note on this subject 

 (Zool. S. S. 1220) I staled that the hird was shot in the North of Yorkshire: I have 

 since found this to be a mistake, it having been killed at Tain, in Scotland. — T. E. 

 Gunn; September, 1868. 



Parasitical Worms in the Intestines of a Cuckoo. — On the 29th of August T dissected 

 a young male cuckoo, and, although very fat, I found a large number of tape-worms 

 attached to the intestines: they measured from one inch to two inches and a half in 

 length, and were collected in clusters of three, four, seven and eight individuals: each 

 group had worked a hole nearly one-eighth of an inch in diameter, from which they 

 derived nutriment: they were loosely attached. I have preserved some of the worms 

 in spirits. — Id. ; September 10, 1868. 



Great Snipe near ChrisUhurch. — A great snipe was shot near Chrislehurch, in 

 Hampshire, on the 1st of September. I skinned the bird with difficulty, for it was 

 excessively fat and swollen besides, owing to the hot weather. The inter-scapulars, 

 scapulars and back, instead of being " rich brownish black," as described in Yarrell, 

 are buff; hence I conclude it must be a bird of the year. Mr. Gatcombe informs me 

 that, on Thursday, the 3rd of September, he saw another, in the flesh, at a London 

 birdstuffer's, just sent up from the neighbourhood of Reading, shot probably the same 

 day as mine. When my father visited Norwich fish-market, in former years, he 

 always used to see one or two, or perhaps three, great snipes there during the first 

 fortnight in September. — J. II. Gurnet/, jun.; The Bank, Darlington. 



Sabine's Snipe. — I wish to invite opinions on this bird: one says it is merely a 

 darker variety of the common snipe, while others affirm equally strongly that it is a 

 separate species, and quite as distinct as the solitary snipe. I have lately spoken to a 

 most enthusiastic snipe shooter, and he believes it to be a totally different bird, and 

 not a variety of the common snipe. Arc not the pages of the 'Zoologist' the best 



