NOTES AND QUERIES. 193 



Nightingale of Eastern Europe has ever visited this country." Writing 

 from Frinsted, Kent, on May 5th inst., Mr. Gervase F. Mathew remarks : — 

 " I saw a couple of queer warblers yesterday, and while they are fresh in 

 my memory will describe them. They were considerably larger than 

 Nightingales, stoutly and robustly built, of a smoky olive-grey colour, under 

 parts lighter ; tail short and square : beak strong shining brown or black ; 

 large black eyes. They were evidently a pair, and were chasing each other 

 about; they came quite close to me, and I had them in view several minutes. 

 Their note also was quite strange to me. What could they have been ? 

 I have never seen anything like them before. They were in a small coppice 

 by the side of the road between this and Sittingbourne." On this com- 

 munication the Rev. M. A. Mathew observes : — " I enclose a note from my 

 brother. The strange warblers are without any doubt Daulias philomela, 

 the Northern Nightingale, of which as yet there is no record in this country 

 that I know of. My brother's description of the birds tallies closely with 

 that given by Mr. Dresser in ' Birds of Europe.' — Murray A. Mathew." 



Red-throated Pipit in Sussex. — As I am perhaps in some measure 

 responsible for the recognition of the specimen of Anthus cervinus reported 

 in a recent issue of ' The Zoologist ' (supra, p. 101), I may be allowed to add 

 one or two particulars. The bird was shot by a boy near this town on 

 Nov. 13th last, and was taken by him to Mr. G. Bristow, our well-known 

 taxidermist. After setting it up Mr. Bristow asked me to examine it, when 

 I suspected its identity. My suspicion was confirmed after reading the 

 account of this species in Mr. Dresser's ' Birds of Europe,' and in the work 

 of the same name by the late Dr. Bree, and I submitted the specimen for 

 examination to Prof. Newton. Not having an example of A. cervinus in 

 winter plumage available for comparison, Prof. Newton was unable to pro- 

 nounce with certainty, but was inclined to regard it as assignable to this 

 species. Mr. Dresser next examined the bird, and found, after "carefully 

 comparing it with a series of specimens of both A.pratensis and A. cervinus, 

 that in all specimens of the latter the markings on the breast are much 

 larger and broader." Dr. Sharpe then examined the bird, and declared 

 it to be without doubt an example of Anthus cervinus (Pall.). It was 

 by him exhibited at a meeting of the B. 0. U. Club held in the month 

 of December last. Your correspondent omitted to point out that the 

 specimen in question is the first one obtained in Britain in autumn — the 

 others having occurred in spring (cf. Sharpe's Brit. Birds in 'Allen's 

 Naturalists' Library,' vol. i. p. 109). I cannot agree with the assertion 

 of your correspondent that the " distinguishing features [of the lately- 

 procured specimens when placed among a series of A. pratensis] are 

 readily observable." A similar comparison in my own case convinced me 

 of the truth of the remark of Col. Irby, that " in winter the difference 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XX.-^VfAY, 1896. Q 



