104 



Adult Male (Farnborough, Kent, May) . Crown and nape light grey, slightly washed with brown, and marked 

 with blackish crossbars, some of the feathers having white tips; back and scapulars grey, finely 

 pencilled and marked with blackish, the feathers on the centres of the nape and back having thick 

 blackish centres, which make a large central patch on the back ; scapulars also marked with blackish, 

 and having yellowish terminal patches ; quills dark brown, on the outer web marked with distinct rusty 

 brown patches at regular distances along the feathers, inner secondaries marked like the scapulars; 

 wing-coverts rusty brownish grey, delicately vermiculated or pencilled with dark brown, most of the 

 feathers with anteapical semilunar blackish markings, and tipped with yellowish white ; tail grey, 

 vermiculated and pencilled with blackish, and with five more or less distinct blackish brown bands ; 

 underparts buffy or yellowish white down to the lower breast, abdomen nearly clear white ; throat and 

 upper breast marked with blackish slightly bent crossbars, which, towards the abdomen, become 

 arrow-head-shaped ; the centre of the abdomen scarcely marked with these blackish marks, they being 

 almost restricted to the sides ; through the eye to the neck a dark brown patch, marked with black, 

 passes ; and above this from the centre of the upper part of the eye backwards is a buffy white line ; 

 under wing-coverts and under tail-coverts dull yellowish white, barred with blackish ; bill dull brown ; 

 iris dark brown; legs and feet yellowish brown. Total length about 7 inches, culmen 058, wing 3'4, 

 tail 2-7, tarsus 0-75. 



Young. Resembles the adult bird, but has the underparts much more strongly marked with blackish 

 brown, and the upper parts are not so clear in colour. 



This species, the only representative of the genus in Europe, is found during summer throughout 

 Europe as high as the northern portion of Scandinavia, and migrates to Africa during the winter 

 season. Eastward it occurs as far as Japan. 



It is common during the summer season in England, but is rare in Scotland, and does not 

 appear to have ever occurred in Ireland. In England it is most numerous in the southern and 

 south-eastern counties, and I have found it numerous in many parts of Surrey, Susses, and Kent ; 

 but on the western side of the island and in the northern counties it becomes rare. It arrives 

 with us in April, remains to breed, and leaves again in August or September. According to 

 Mr. Stevenson it breeds in Norfolk; but in Lincolnshire it is said to be extremely rare, and 

 equally, if not more so in Yorkshire, where I never recollect to have seen or heard it. As 

 above stated, it is rarer on our western than on the eastern coast ; and Mr. Cecil Smith informs 

 me that in Somersetshire it is a regular summer visitant, but not a very numerous one. In 

 Guernsey, however, he says, " where it is generally known by the name of Mackerel-bird, it is 

 very numerous during the summer, and every hedge and tree seems full of them." In Scotland 

 it is very rare ; and Mr. Robert Gray writes as follows : — " With the exception of a single speci- 

 men shot near Hamilton in 1835, and a notice of one near Glasgow in Yarrell's 'British Birds,' I 

 have not been able until recently to trace the occurrence of it in the western counties. In East 

 Lothian and Fifeshire it has several times occurred, and also in Dumfriesshire and Roxburgh- 

 shire. I got a beautiful specimen at Dunbar in 1847." He further states that it has been 

 recorded from Birse, in Aberdeenshire, and the Braes of Gight, and that it is met with in 

 Sutherlandshire, but as a rule is not found north of the Forth. In Mr. Dunn's copy of Messrs. 

 Baikie and Heddle's ' Fauna of Orkney,' a manuscript note states that one was got at Melsetter 

 in 1841, and that in one instance it had been seen before. Finally, Mr. Gray gives some detailed 



