NOTES AND QUERIES. 83 



' Took-a-hoo ! Took-a-hoo ! ' coming from under our very feet. Here is a 

 hole, and we find inside the author of the peculiar cuckoo-like cry to be a 

 Manx Shearwater." Edward McCarron, the keeper at the Tearaght Eock, 

 described the sound as " kuck-kuck-ko, kuck-kuck-ko." The inference 

 which I drew is now corroborated by evidence of the most direct character, 

 and a cry has been traced to the Manx Shearwater — a bird hitherto 

 supposed to be absolutely silent — for I could find no mention of a sound 

 being uttered by this bird in any book I consulted when writing my 

 previous note. In its hole the cry is probably subdued, but at night, when 

 flying over the surface of the water, it is very loud aud remarkable. — 

 Eichakd M. Barrington (Fassaroe, Bray). 



[See the editorial note appended to Mr. Chichester Hart's communica- 

 tion on this subject. — Ed.] 



Rustic Bunting near London. — In the note under this heading (p. 33) 

 it was inadvertently stated that only one previous occurrence of this 

 Bunting in the British Islands [viz., that taken near Brighton in October, 

 1867) had been reported. A second, however, was shot at Easiugton, in 

 Holderness, in September, 1881, as recorded by Mr. W. Eagle Clarke 

 ('Zoologist,' 1881, p. 465). The specimen recently reported by Lord 

 Lilford, procured at Elstree Reservoir last November, is therefore the third 

 which has been identified as an accidental visitant to Great Britain. 



Shore Lark, Lapland, and Snow Buntings in Kent.— Having heard 

 that a bird-catcher in this district had been catching some Shore Larks in 

 November last, I went to his house to see them. He had then three, taken 

 about two days before my visit, and these were supplemented by four more, 

 seven in all, about a week later. Together with these, and associating with 

 them, he had taken what he termed an " Ortolan," but which was indeed a 

 Lapland Bunting iu its winter dress, and this, as well as some of the Shore 

 Larks, I obtained from him. Besides these birds, he had several freshly- 

 caught Snow Buntings, in beautiful white plumage ; and, over and beyond 

 these, he produced a fourth bird, evidently only just got (I think he told 

 me the previous day), which he believed to be a hybrid between a Green- 

 finch and a Common Linnet, Linota cannabina, and this conjecture, no 

 doubt, is correct, as the bird bears in a very marked way the characteristics 

 of each of these species. Thus in one visit I obtained from him the three 

 good species, Shore Lark, Snow Bunting, and Lapland Bunting, with the 

 above-mentioned hybrid. All these birds were perfectly clean in tail, 

 primaries, and general plumage. All were shy, and evidently quite fresh 

 caught. — W. Oxenden Hammond (St. Alban's Court, near Wingham). 



[Some years ago we remember to have seen a hybrid between the 

 Greenfinch and Linnet, and we believe an example of this cross is in the 

 collection of Mr. Frederick Bond. — Ed.] 



