OCCASIONAL NOTES. 189 



carefully examined it and compared it with others, both of its own species 

 and with Richardson's Skua, and have no doubt as to its identity, for besides 

 its considerably smaller size, it has the shafts of the first two primaries 

 only white, the rest being decidedly darker : this is Mr. Howard Saunders's 

 test, and seems perfectly reliable at all ages, though in some specimens the 

 shafts of the third and following primaries do not seem to be quite so strongly 

 marked as in others, but always sufficiently so to distinguish the bird from 

 Richardson's Skua. Mr. Jago, in his letter to me, describes it as very like 

 a young Pomatorhine Skua, but smaller : this is as nearly as possible Mr. 

 Dresser's description of the young bird iu the ' Birds of Europe,' where he 

 says it differs from the young of Stercorarius crepidatus in being much darker, 

 and in colour resembles more the young of Stercorarius pomatorhinus. This 

 seems also a perfectly good distinction in young birds, but I should think it 

 doubtful in intermediate stages. It is not included in Professor Austed's 

 list, nor have I been able to hear of any other occurrence of this kind in 

 the Islands. — Cecil Smith (Bishop's Lydeard, Taunton). 



On the Note of the Nuthatch. — Why one of the sounds made by 

 this bird is called " churring " by Mr. Young (p. 113), and by the Rev. 

 0. P. Cambridge (p. 149), I do not know; but I am quite confident that 

 the sound referred to by both the above writers emanates from the 

 Nuthatch, and not from the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. The former 

 (locally termed the " Mud-dabber ") is very common in the New Forest, 

 where the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is comparatively rare, though I have 

 had fair opportunities of observing both species. Anyone reading the 

 article by the Rev. C. A. Johns on the Nuthatch, in * British Birds in 

 their Haunts ' (p. 311), will not doubt for a moment that the note referred 

 to in the above-mentioned letters was that of the Nuthatch. — C. Bygrave 

 Wharton (Hounsdown, Totton, Southampton). 



Eider Duck at Scilly. — An Eider Duck was recently taken by 

 Mr. Dorrien Smith at the Scilly Islauds. It is a male bird in perfect 

 plumage, and has been forwarded to Mr. W. H. Vingoe to be set up. 

 Mr. Dorrien Smith's gamekeeper recollects having obtained another speci- 

 men of this bird there some years since, but the occurrence does not appear 

 to have been recorded. — Thomas Cornish (Penzance). 



Imitative Powers of the Hawfinch. — I do not recollect having seen 

 any notice of the imitative powers of the Hawfinch, Coccothraustes vulgaris, 

 and therefore subjoin a few words on the subject. A bird of this species, 

 now in his third year (which I brought up by hand), constantly imitates the 

 " sweeting " and " clucking " sounds with which I have talked to him and 

 other birds. In his youth, and especially during his first moult, he used to 

 " record " in a low tone a few notes, probably those which he beard in the 



