NOTES AND QUERIES. 231 



Wood Pigeon cooing at Night.— On April 9th I heard a Wood 

 Pigeon cooing in our wood between 10 and 11 o'clock at night. It was 

 calm and mild, and the moon was almost full. The note was loud and 

 unmistakable. The cooing was continued at intervals when I was in the 

 wood, and had not ceased when I left it. Has anyone yet attempted a list 

 of such British birds as are occasionally heard at night ?— Richard M. 

 Barrington (Fassaroe, Bray). 



[Numerous notices of birds which sing at night might be referred to. 

 See White's ' Selborne,' to begin with (Letter I. to Danes Barrington), and 

 footnote to the passage in my edition of that work, p. 139 ; ' Our Summer 

 Migrants,' p. 37 ; and various notes on the subject scattered throughout 

 former volumes of ' The Zoologist.' — Ed.] 



Siskin and Snow Bunting in North Devon.— On March 6th I saw 

 a Siskin in beautiful plumage. Tliis is the first time I have seen or heard 

 of this bird in this district, my acquaintance with which dates from 1879. 

 On the 7th a Snow Bunting was picked up on Northam Burrows and 

 brought to me. Its plumage tallied e.xactly with Yarrell's description of the 

 bird as it appears on its first arrival at the beginning of winter. We have 

 one other specimen in our Museum, which we procured from Mr. Howe, the 

 birdstuffer of Barnstaple. — Herbert A. Evans (United Service College, 

 Westward Ho). 



Variety of the Yellowhammer.— At p. 114 I noted a very singular 

 variety of the Yellowhammer, with whisker-hke marks of rufous, and a 

 tinge of the same colour over the eye. Mr. F. Bond's collection of varieties 

 contains one exactly hke it, taken at Brighton in the spring of 1869. 

 There is not the slightest deviation from the usual colouring in any other 

 part of the plumage in either of these birds. Both are males.- J. H. 

 GuRNEY, JUN. (Hill House, Northrepps, Norwich). 



The Avi-Fauna of Spitzbergen. — Looking through the back volumes 

 of ' The Zoologist,' a few weeks ago, for something else, I met with a 

 paper on the Fauna of Spitzbergen, by the Rev. A. E. Eaton, M.A., &c., in 

 the volumes for 1873 and 1874, which I had overlooked when writing my 

 notes on Spitzbergen, published in ' The Zoologist' for 1882 and 1883, and 

 it may perhaps be worth calling attention to his observations on the following 



species of birds ; — 



"Lesser Redpoll, Linota linaria" [S.S. 38U5). — This should be doubt- 

 less the Mealy Redpoll, L. Unaria, Linn., as a specimen brought home has 

 been so identified by Prof. Newton (Yarrell, 4th edit. ii. 144), besides the 

 fact of this species having a more northerly range than the Lesser Redpoll, 

 L. ru/escens, Vieillot. On May 27th a male Redpoll alighted on the ship, 

 in lat. 75° 13' N., long. 2° 30' W. (S.S. 3763 and 3806). A Redpoll was 

 seen in WiiJe Bay on the " 6lh Sunday after Trinity"; later one was heard 



