VOL. vn.] NOTES. 89 



more than a pale example of the typical form, but on 

 re-examination of his Fair Isle collections he finds it to be 

 a specimen of this very pale-headed eastern form which 

 has occurred only once before in the British Isles, viz. in 

 Sussex in April, 1898. 



Grey-headed Wagtail at the Isle oe May. — ^The 

 Misses Rintoul and Baxter record {Scot. Nat, 1913, p. 160) 

 the occurrence of a female Motacilla f. thunhergi (regularly 

 observed on migration at Fair Isle and very seldom 

 elsewhere) on the Isle of May on May 16th, 1913. 



White Wagtails est South-east Ireland. — Professor 

 C. J. Patten notes {Irish Nat., 1913, p. 124) that out of 

 twenty-one Wagtails obtained at the Tuskar Rock in the 

 autumns of 1911 and 1912 and spring of 1912, fifteen were 

 Motacilla a. alba and only six M. a. luguhris. This shows 

 that the White Wagtail passes through in considerable 

 numbers, but the proportions are probably accidental, as I 

 observed in the autumn of 1911 at Rosslare (on the mainland 

 opposite the Tuskar) very large numbers of Pied Wagtails 

 migrating and only a few White. — ^H.F.W. 



Contlnental Redbreast and Song-Thrush in Had- 

 dingtonshire. — ^Mr. W. Evans records {Scot. Nat., 1913, 

 p. 141) the occurrence of a specimen of Dandalus r. rubecula 

 at Skateraw and a specimen of Turdus ph. philomelus 

 at Barnsness on October 26th, 1912. There are as yet 

 few records of these races from the mainland of Scotland 

 (c/. Vol. v., p. 319). 



Hoopoe in Fifeshire. — ^Mr. D. J. Balfour Earke records 

 {Scot. Nat., 1913, p. 116) that a male Upupa e. epops was 

 shot near Kirkcaldy on September 25th, 1912. 



Cuckoo reared in Starling's nest. — Mr. Harold J. 

 Selby writes in the Field, June 14th, 1913, that on June 1st 

 he found two fully-fledged Starlings {Sturnus v. vulgaris) 

 and a young Cuckoo {Cuculus c. canorus) in a nest in the 

 thatched roof of a deserted farm-building on Cleeve Hill, 

 Gloucestershire. All three birds fluttered out of the nest 

 under the thatch when Mr. Selby put his hand into the 

 nest. The Starling is included in Mr. E. Bidwell's later 

 list of foster-parents and also in Dr. E. Rey's list, but no 

 particulars are given in either case. Probably both refer 

 to a Continental record, as I am not aware that any previous 

 instance is known of the Starling being adopted as a foster- 

 parent in the British Isles. It is unusual, though not 

 unprecedented, for the young of the foster-parent to be 

 reared as well as the young Cuckoo. — F.C.R.J. 



