NOTES AND QUEKIES. 78 



chin, and underparts (though of a greener tinge), and a grey nape. But 

 the dorsal plumage is of a greyer tone, and the wing-feathers not margined 

 so vividly with yellow. The shape of the bill also is very different, being 

 more Hke that of the Goldfinch {Cardnelis). The Wild Canary, Sorinus 

 canaria, with a bill like canicolUs, has none of the bright greenish yellow 

 uniformly distributed over the dorsal plumage (except on the upper tail- 

 coverts), and is of a much greyer tone, each feather with a darker centre ; 

 while the smallest of the four, the Serin, Serinus hortulanus, with the 

 shortest and thickest bill of all (in proportion to its size), is at once 

 recognizable by tbe great amount of striation on the flanks, us well as on 

 the back and scapulars. As to whether the specimen of Serinus canicoUis 

 recently procured at Brighton was anything but an escaped cage-bird (as 

 seems probable), opinions will doubtless differ; but it may be remarked 

 that the plumage was in excellent order, and showed no traces of con- 

 finement. — J. E. Harting. 



Additions to the Avifauna of the Fseroe Islands.— At page 487 of 

 ' The Zoologist,' 1886, I have recorded, at second-hand, the capture of the 

 Little Tern, Sterna minuta, in the Fseroe Islands. Since then Herr H. C. 

 Miiller, of Thorshavn, has been kind enough to send me the specimen 

 alluded to, and I find that it is an immature example of Hydrochelidon 

 nigra, the Black Tern, so that the occurrence of Sterna minuta will have 

 to be expunged, but the Black Tern is an equally interesting addition ; 

 this specimen was obtained on the island of Nalsae in the month of 

 September, 1886. Herr MuUer has Hkewise sent me specimens of Lams 

 minutus, the Little Gull, obtained in the island of Nalsae on February 11th, 

 1886, and an example of Upupa epops, the Hoopoe, which was shot near 

 Thorshavn on the 12th October, 1885 ; both additions to the Faeroese 

 list.— H. W, Feilden (West House, Wells, Norfolk). 



Birds which Sing or Call at Night. — Mr. Flemyng's interesting 

 note headed " Birds which Sing at Night " (Zool. 1886, p. 486), recalls the 

 following circumstance. On March 10th, 1884, a fine bright night 

 just before the full moon, and about the hour of midnight, I heard the fol- 

 lowing birds almost simultaneously : Song Thrush, Partridge, Redshank 

 and Waterhen. Owing to the ignorance and destructive tendencies of 

 gamekeepers, Owls have, I regret to say, become very scarce here, and in 

 the early spring by far the noisiest bird we have at night is the Waterhen, 

 whose strange nocturnal habit of leaving its usual haunts, and visiting 

 places where one would least expect it to turn up, has given rise at times to 

 various conjectures as to the origin of certain mysterious sounds heard in 

 the dark, and 1 have more than once been startled by suddenly hearing 

 overhead the loud harsh cry of this night wanderer in the most unlikely 

 spots. The Norfolk Plover or Stone Curlew, CEdicneinus crepitans, though 

 ZOOLOGIST. — i'EB. 1887. G 



