NOTES AND QUERIES. 4G7 



of Cley-next-the-Sea, sent me for determination a pretty little warbler which 

 Mr. Gurney and I recognized as Phylloscopits proregulus, a finding which 

 Mr. Dresser was subsequently kind enough to confirm ; the latter gentleman 

 also exhibited the little stranger at the meeting of the Zoological Society 

 on December 1st. The bird, which was killed at Cley on October 31st 

 last, is in perfect condition, and, I imagine, adult plumage. P. pro- 

 regulus may readily be distinguished from P. superciliosus, which it 

 somewhat resembles (which latter species has already been killed in 

 Norfolk), by the pale mesial line on the crown, also by the conspicuous pale 

 yeilow of the rump. Mr. Dresser figures this species in part ii. of the 

 Supplement to his ' Birds of Europe.' Seebohm (Brit. Mus. Cat. v. p. 73) 

 states that " Pallas's Barred Warbler breeds in the subalpine districts of 

 the Himalayas from Cashmere to Burma, passing through North China on 

 migration, and winters in South China, Burma, and Bengal." Mr. Gatke 

 met with it once in Heligoland, but preserved only a wing ; he is of opinion 

 that there is a difference in the respective lengths of the flight-feathers in 

 the Siberian and the Indian examples of this bird; but Mr. Dresser, after 

 a careful examination, is unable to separate the birds from the two localities ; 

 if such difference existed, the Norfolk specimen, he says, certainly belongs 

 to the Siberian form. One can hardly conceive of this and other equally 

 delicate Warblers straying such an immense distance from their native 

 haunts, and how they can survive such a journey across the whole of 

 Europe, finishing with the North Sea. — Thomas Southwell (Norwich). 



A Robin in Bath Abbey. — Having read a notice in one of the Bath 

 papers concerning a Robin which was reported to be seen daily in the 

 Abbey, I went there on Sunday, Oct. 18th, to see how far the report was 

 true. Soon after the service had commenced the Robin began to sing, and 

 could be heard distinctly above the peals of the organ. On looking up I 

 discovered that it was perched on a huge corona which hung from the roof. 

 It sang prettily for a long while, and appeared quite unconcerned at its 

 unusual surroundings. It finally disappeared, after flying about for a short 

 time before the sermon began. Some friends informed me that this Robin 

 first came inside the building more than a fortnight ago. One often hears 

 of Robins and other birds entering buildings, but I am surprised at the 

 length of time which this bird has been accustomed to do so, and I thought 

 the fact might be worth recording. — C. B. Hoesbrugh (Richmond Hill, 

 Bath). 



Flight of Swift. — Mr. Howard Saunders, in his ' Manual of British 

 Birds,' p. 251, writes of the Common Swift: — "Contrary to the popular 

 belief, the birds are able to raise themselves from the ground." I always 

 thought, too, that the " popular belief" was a pure superstition, but have 

 recently been slightly shaken in my scepticism by the positive assertion of 

 a friend of mine that a Swift which had been caught, on being placed, quite 



