NOTES AND QUERIES. 305 



it with glasses cm May 31st, and it was subsequently reported to have been 

 shot with a catapult on the evening of that day. — W. J. Clarke (44, 

 Huntriss Row, Scarborough). 



[With regard to the occurrence of the Nightingale in Yorkshire, the 

 authors of the very useful ' Handbook of Yorkshire Vertebrata,' 1881, write 

 of it (p. '20) as "a summer visitant of regular occurrence in very limited 

 numbers in the neighbourhood of Barnsley, Wakefield, York, Beverley, 

 Patrington, Brough, Selby, and Doncaster, arriving early in May. West and 

 north of the frontier formed by these towns it is only of exceptional occur- 

 rence, and a line drawn from Huddersfield through Bradford, Otley, and 

 Ripon to Baldersby, Bagby, and Sessay near Thirsk, and thence to Flam- 

 borough Head, will include all the localities for which there is satisfactory 

 evidence of its ever having occurred or bred, and also defines the extreme 

 northern limit of its distribution in Britain/' On May 8th, 1866, as we 

 find by reference to an old note-book, we had the pleasure of listening to a 

 Nightingale in full song in a copse by the lake at Walton Hall, four miles 

 from Wakefield. — Ed.] 



Albino Wheatear and Swallow.— Four white Wheatears, Saxicola 

 cenanthe, and a white Swallow, Hirundo rustica, all birds of the year, 

 frequented a quarry in the cricket-field in this neighbourhood during the 

 present summer. — W. Ramsbotham (Meale Brace Hall, Shrewsbury). 



Iceland Gull in Co. SligO.— You may think fit to record in « The 

 Zoologist' that I picked up an adult Iceland Gull, Larus leucopterus, Fab., 

 on April 5th last, at Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo. It was dead, and had 

 apparently been shot at, having both legs broken and wounds in the neck 

 and stomach. I cleaned off the maggots on it and salted it inside, and sent 

 it to Mr. Williams, of Dublin, who identified it. Is it not unusual for it 

 to be obtained in Ireland so late in the spring? — Charles Langham 

 (Tempo Manor, Co. Fermanagh). 



Cuckoo's Egg on the Ground. — I was interested in reading the note 

 on this subject in your July number (p. 259), for a similar occurrence came 

 under my notice in June, 1895. An ornithological friend, Mr. W. Gyngell, 

 was birdsnesting on Seamer Moors, when he noticed laid on the ground a 

 quantity of feathers, as if some bird had been attacked and devoured by 

 a hawk. On examining the feathers he found them to be those of the 

 Cuckoo, and further examination revealed an egg of this bird lying under- 

 neath them and quite uninjured. The feathers comprised not only body 

 but tail-feathers and primaries and secondaries from the wing. The egg was 

 not incubated. In this case the probability appears to be that the parent 

 had either been surprised just after depositing her egg on the ground, or 

 on being attacked had deposited the egg during the death-throes. — W. J. 

 Clarke (44, Huntriss Row, Scarborough). 



