OCCASIONAL NOTES. 465 
colouring. Since writing the above I am convinced the bird is Acrocephalus 
turdoides. Mr. Gordon, the curator of the Dover Museum, is quite satisfied 
about it. We have compared it with Yarrell, and it answers exactly, with 
the exception of the length—7# in. against Yarrell’s and Gould’s 8 in.—and 
the colour of the legs, given by both Gould and Yarrell as brown; whereas 
mine, when fresh, were slaty-blue. My bird’s legs, having dried, have now 
turned brown. As to length, Yarrell quotes Latham, and does not speak 
from his own observation, and no one can read Gould’s letterpress without 
seeing that he mainly went to Yarrell for his description. On skinning 
my bird it turned out to be “a perfect ball of fat,’—so Gordon described 
it,—and this might perhaps account for its laboured flight, which surprised 
me.—W. OxENDEN Hamwonp (St. Alban’s Court, Wingham, Kent). 
[The proper name which this bird should bear, according to Professor 
Newton (Yarrell, 4th ed., vol.i., p. 865), is Acrocephalus arundinaceus 
(Linnzus),— Ep.] 
OccuRRENCE OF THE Rustic Buntine (E'mberiza rustica) in Yorx- 
sHIRE.—To record the addition of a new bird to a county-list is always a 
pleasing duty to one specially interested in its avifauna; but when the 
species is one whose claim to be considered British has hitherto rested 
upon the somewhat unsatisfactory basis of a single occurrence, it is not 
only an additional pleasure, but to British ornithologists generally it is a 
matter of considerable importance as substantiating a claim which otherwise 
might be regarded with somewhat mixed satisfaction. Up to the 17th of 
September last the only example of this species known to have occurred in 
Britain was caught alive near Brighton on October 23rd, 1867, and is 
included in Prof. Newton's ‘ Yarrell’ (vol. ii. p. 29). The second British 
example, now to be recorded, was shot on the beach at Easington, in 
Holderness, on the 17th September last, by Mr. Townend, of that village. 
When first observed the bird was on the sands close to the sea; on being 
approached it took a short flight, alighting for a moment on some thistles, 
and again returned to the sands and was shot. Mr. Townend gave this 
bird to Mr. W. P. Lawton, who set it up for his beautiful collection of local 
birds. Unfortunately, not knowing the value of the capture, Mr. Lawton 
failed to make a note of the sex and other particulars which would 
have been interesting. The bird remained unidentified until I visited 
Easington on October 7th, when I at once saw that it was one of the rarer 
Buntings, and brought the specimen to Leeds with me for examination and 
comparison. I may say that my identification of the bird has been kindly 
confirmed by Prof. Newton, in whose custody the specimen now is, and by 
whom it will probably be exhibited at the next meeting of the Zoological 
Society. In plumage this specimen agrees very well with Mr. Dresser’s 
figure of the young female, but on the back, breast, and flanks the markings 
30 
