74 THE OENITHOLOGIST. 



Swift : Devilin. Green Woodpecker : Nickill. Wren : Jenny 

 or Gilliver Wren. Cuckoo: Gowk. Lapwing: Wipe, Pywipe. Heron: 

 Hern. Bittern : Butterboomp. Landrail : Midda' Creak. 



The Cuckoo was first heard in this village on April 23rd, and to-day 

 (May 3rd), a Nightingale was singing ; it was first heard yesterday. Young 

 Thrushes, Blackbirds and Missel Thrushes are fledged, and Hedge Sparrows, 

 Chaffinches, Starlings, &c, are sitting. We have a Starling's nest in a dis- 

 used pump, and two long-tailed Tits are sitting in the garden. — Margaret 

 L. Anderson (Lea Hall, Gainsbro'). 



The Rook as a Corn-stealer. — Mr. C. E. Wright, of Kettering, has 

 preferred a strong case against the Rooks in his neighbourhood. He says 

 that the male birds have been feeding the females with corn while they were 

 incubating, and he has sent me up a parcel of pellets which were cast up by 

 the latter and I find they quite confirm his evidence. Mr. Aplin, who 

 examined some, writes that "the castings consist largely of the remains of 

 corn — almost entirely oats— with other vegetable matter; in one there are 

 many remains of small beetles. In dry springs like the present Rooks have 

 great difficulty in getting sufficient worms and grubs, and all they can get are 

 given to the young birds. It is always in dry springs that they are seen 

 taking seed on the newly drilled fields." — H. Kirke Swann. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



A Handbook to the Birds of Great Britain, by R. Bowdler Sharpe, LL.D., 

 &c. Vols. 1, 2 and 3. (London : W. H. Allen & Co., Ltd.) Price 6s. 

 per vol. 



The issue of a Naturalists' Library on the lines of the so long popular 

 series of volumes published under the editorship of Jardine and Selby was 

 a happy idea on the part of Messrs. Allen & Co. The style of typography 

 adopted in the three volumes now before us leaves little to be desired, the 

 different sections of the information given being side-headed in bold type to 

 facilitate references. I wish, however, that the coloured plates contained in 

 these volumes were as well entitled to words of praise as the manner in 

 which their author has performed his somewhat tedious task of presenting 

 in the space of a couple of pages or more a complete, accurate and useful 

 history of each species of bird on the British list. Dr. Sharpe has not only 

 done this creditably, but in such a manner as to leave but little ground for 

 fault-finding. 



