Birds. 1551 



and the head rather so. The tail is forked, but not very acutely ; wings very long, be- 

 ing nearly 4f inches. I fancy it is a swift. — William Turner ; Uppingham, Novem- 

 ber, 12th, 1846. 



[On receiving this obliging communication, I wrote to the Kev. Mr. Turner, re- 

 questing the loan of the bird, which I hope to name, figure, and describe in the next 

 number, but I thought Mr. Turner, as well as my subscribers were entitled to this early 

 notice of so interesting a fact as the occurrence in Britain of another straggler of the 

 swallow tribe. — E. Newmaii]. 



Anecdote of confidence in the Sivallow. The following instance of confidence in a 

 swallow deserves a place in the ' Zoologist.' One side of the Wellingborough sta- 

 tion may be called a roofed platform, under which are two lamps, their height from 

 the platform cannot, I think, exceed eight feet, and yet on the top of one of these a 

 swallow built her nest, and incubation was going on, though hundreds of people must be 

 daily congregated there, whose heads can be little more than two feet from the lamp : 

 when I saw it, she had left her nest, but soon returned, and after wheeling in her 

 flight two or three times just over our heads settled on her nest without betraying any 

 symptoms of alarm. — William Turner ; Uppingham, Sept. 6th, 1846. 



Occurrence of the White-winged Crossbill near Carlisle. — Several specimens of the 

 white-winged crossbill have been killed in Cumberland, near Walton house, some ten 

 miles east of Carlisle. I had two females sent me by T. C. Heysham, Esq., 

 of Carlisle, for the purpose of preservation. — James Cooper; Preston, October 

 12ih, 1846. 



Curious deviation from its ordinary habits of the Kingfisher. The following remarks 

 on certain peculiarities on the habits of the kingfisher, perhaps induced partially by 

 the nature of the locality, may not prove uninteresting to the readers of the ' Zoologist.' 

 It is stated, I think, in all the books on Natural History, with which I am acquainted 

 that the kingfisher, when on the look out for food, remains perched on some stick or 

 twig, and from thence pounces on its pray. This is undoubtedly true as a general 

 remark, but it is not universal, as is evidenced by the following fact which I have wit- 

 nessed frequently at all seasons of the year. When walking on the sea shore between 

 Charniouth and Lyme Regis, in Dorsetshire, when the tide was down, I have very 

 many times seen kingfishers fishing in the little pools which were left among the 

 rocks by the receding tide. Now, as there are no trees or bushes in such localities 

 on which to elevate itself, the bird here takes quite a different method for attaining 

 its ends, but which is equally effectual. Instead of waiting in one spot for the fish 

 to approaeh it, it flies from one little pool to another, and suspends itself in the air 

 over each, at an elevation of about four feet or so, exactly as the kestrel does, and on 

 observing its prey, darts down upon it, in the usual way. This appears to me to be 

 a deviation from its ordinary habits in two ways, first, in its being found on the sea 

 shore at all, in preference to the wooded banks of the streams, of which there are 

 plenty close at hand, and next, in its hovering in stead of perching, previous to pouncing 

 on its prey. Had it been driven to the sea shore by hard weather, I should not have 

 been so much surprised, but this was not the case on any of the occasions on which I 

 observed it in that situation, but on the contrary the weather was mild and open, so 

 that the bird being there appears to have been a matter of choice, not of necessity. 

 Many birds are driven to the sea shore in hard weather, but this is not extraordinary ; 

 I have several times seen the common snipe, in very severe frost, on the hard shingly 

 beach at Charmouth, which one would think to be a situation most unfit for the ten- 



