6808 Birds. 



thirty miles of each other ; and very strange indeed it would he if they were the only 

 two that had sojourned here ; yet it might be. But perhaps we shall hear more of the 

 subject by and by, as the people in this quarter are becoming more alive to these 

 matters than they were fifty years ago. — Thomas Edivard ; Suh-curalor of the Museum, 

 Banff, December 5, 1859. 



Occurrence of the Great Ashcoloured Shrike (Lanius excubitor) in Cambridgeshire. 

 — Cambridgeshire has once more been visited by a fine male specimen of the great 

 ashcoloured shrike ; it was shot at Histon, on the 5th of November ; it was accompanied 

 by a female. I have a specimen, procured about three miles from the locality named 

 some five years since, shot on exactly the same date, viz. November 5. — S. P. Saville ; 

 Panton Place, Cambridge, November 23, 1859. 



Another Occurrence of the Ashcoloured Shrike in Cambridgeshire. — Again (for the 

 second time this season) I have the pleasure of recording the capture, by a boy, of an 

 ashcoloured shrike, in a close near Newmarket, on the 25th of November. This 

 locality is much further on the eastern side of the county than any in which I ever 

 knew of its being shot before, — Id. ; December 10, 1859. 



Disappearance of Swallotvs and Martins. — In the December nnmber of the 

 'Zoologist' (Zool. 6779), under the above heading, I see the latest date is the 24th of 

 October. Colonel Newman asks. Is it usual for them to stay so late .'' I can inform 

 him that I myself have made a similar observation, as respects their late stay this year 

 in this locality : swallows and martins were seen as late as the 31st of October, which 

 occurrence was unusual ; they generally depart about the beginning of October ; some- 

 times, in wet, cold autumns as early as the 15lh or 20th of September. — Id. 



Late Stay of Martins. — In the last number of the ' Zoologist ' (Zool. 6779), there 

 is a notice of the appearance of martins so late as the 24ih of October. They were 

 fully as late in the neighbourhood of Bridgwater: on the 25th several were flying 

 around my house during a heavy rain, dashing about with great animation and 

 apparent enjoyment. I saw a solitary one on the 29th, which was the last that I saw 

 or heard of. — Thomas Clark; Halesleigh, December 15, 1859, 



Occurrence of the Alpine Swift (Cypselus alpinus) in Cornwall. — A few weeks 

 ■since a capital specimen of this rare species of swift was obtained in the parish of 

 Mylor, near Falmouth. The bird has passed into my hands, and as far as I can 

 judge, it is an adult bird. The whole of the upper parts are of a dull brown, and the 

 under parts similar to the descriptions given by authors. The length from the carpal 

 joint to the end of the quill feathers, about 8^ inches. I rather think that it is not the 

 first instance of its occurrence in Cornwall, as Mr. R. Q. Couch has more than once 

 told me that his father obtained a specimen at or near Looe, some years since, but 

 whether the bird was preserved by the late Mr. Jackson, and formed a part of his col- 

 lection I do not know. — Edward Hearle Rodd ; Penzance, December 1, 1859, 



Occurrence of the Black Redstart (Sylvia tithys) and of the Whinchat (Sylvia 

 rubetra) in December, near, Dublin. — Yesterday (December 13th), when on the 

 beach, near Killiney, Co. Dublin, my attention was drawn to a bird about the size of 

 a stonechat, which perched within three or four yards of the rock on which I was sit- 

 ting. When first attracted to him, his breast was turned towards me and seemed to 

 me much darker and sootier in colour than that of a stonechat; his manners too, dif- 

 fered from those of that species, and on his expanding his wings, I remarked that the 

 white was much less in extent : while still in doubt as to his precise species, — although 

 he reminded me much of the redstarts, as I had seen them in Devon and Kent,— a 



