OBSERVATIONS AND QUERIES. 57 



white, the head and neck having a buff tint, the markings on back pale 

 brown, flight feathers slate grey; bill, flesh colour; legs, pale brown. 

 Through the kindness of Mr. Robert Warren, of Moy View, Ballina, I have 

 been able to add this very rare variety to my collection. It is the first 

 variety of this species I have ever heard of, and shall be glad to hear if 

 any of your readers have seen or heard of one.— J. Whitaker. 



Spring Birds in Notts. — Though the winter has been so mild and 

 the spring early, the spring birds at any rate in these parts are after their 

 usual time, and up to now, April 9th, I have only seen Chiffchaff and Tree- 

 pipit. Our resident birds are in good numbers, and it is a blessing for 

 them the winter has been so mild, as they suffered to a very gr^at exi ent 

 last year, and will now have a chance to get up their average again. I counted 

 thirteen Tufted Ducks on the lake here yesterday. Snipe are drumming, 

 and 1 saw the first young birds (Thrushes), in nest on April 6th. — 

 J. Whitaker (Raiuworth, Notts). 



Call Notes of Birds. — I quite agree with your correspondent, Mr. F. C. 

 Rawlings, as to the great difficulty of writing down in syllables the notes of 

 birds. No two authors will, perhaps, represent the same sounds in the same 

 manner ; as an instance, I see our Editor describes the flight-notes of M. rail 

 as resembling the syllables " chee, chee, chit-up." Now I have seen and 

 listened to many thousands of this species, but have never heard any other 

 call-note thau a clear liquid " wee-sit," with the accent on the "wee," and 

 the remaining syllable uttered rather softly. The call-note, too, of M. 

 melannpe always sounds to me rather metallic. I should write it down as 

 " ching-ijx" With regard to the reported early appearance of M. ?-aii, 

 without saying Mr. Gee is wrong, the fact that the individual in question 

 "jerked its tail " is more suggestive of the manners of M. melannpe than of 

 M. rail. I have never met with the latter before April 1st in this locality, 

 but that of course is no argument against its earlier appearance elsewhere. — 

 F. B. Whitlock (Nottingham). 



[Mr. Whitlock rather mistakes me. I attempted to render the flight- 

 note, not the call-note. The note uttered on the ground, to my ear, 

 resembles the last two syllables of my rendering of the flight-note, the two 

 prefixed syllables being uttered softly as though the birds were gaining 

 breath — much as a man does when crying hip, hip, hurrah. I doubt if Mr. 

 Whi lock ever heard a wagtail of any species utter a flight-note which was 

 not preceded by two or three of these softer sounds. — H. Kirke Swann.] 



The Birds of Surrey. — As I hope to publish shortly the above work I 

 should be much obliged if any persons interested in county natural history 

 would draw my attention to any published or unpublished sources of 

 information, or would send me any notes of unusual visitors to Surrey. I 



