Birds, 2391 



Occurrence of the Minor Grackle (Gracula religiosa) in Norfolk. — In the latter 

 end of March, 1 848, I was informed by a gamekeeper and others that two very cu- 

 rious birds had been seen by them, at Waxham, near Yarmouth, resembling the 

 blackbird, but with a white bar on each wing. I concluded a mistake had been 

 made, and that the birds were ring ouzels ; but a week after the above-mentioned 

 time unfolded the mystery, for a bird to a distant observer answering the same 

 description was shot at Hickling, two miles from Waxham. I have examined it 

 (it now forms one of my collection), and find it to be a beautiful male specimen of the 

 minor grackle {Gracula religiosa, Lewin), the only one I believe ever killed in Eng- 

 land, although the gamekeeper remembers having seen a pair in the same place some 

 years before. From which four occurrences, considering one has been killed and three 

 seen, I think it deserves a place in our list of British birds, especially when we find 

 birds counted " British," of which but one or two specimens have ever been obtained. 

 In size equal to a blackbird : colour black, with blue, green and bronze reflections : 

 head small, tapering towards the bill, which is rather more than an inch in length and 

 of a bright orange colour, growing pale towards its edges ; both mandibles are slightly 

 feathered half the length ; under each eye a small portion of the skin is bare and of a 

 yellow colour, as also is behind the ears, — but here the skin is about three-fourths of 

 an inch in length, part is detached, which, rising up, forms a kind of tuft on each side 

 of the head : legs yellow : white band about midway of the greater quills. From the 

 appearance of its plumage when shot, from the look of its feet, claws and beak, it 

 seems never to have been a caged bird. — W. E. Cater ; Queens College, Cambridge, 

 January 23, 1849. 



[This is not even a European bird : it must have escaped from an aviary. — E. N.~\ 



Occurrence of the Kingfisher (Alcedo Ispida) near Deal. — February 6th : I saw a 

 kingfisher in the marshes to-day, — a very rare occurrence in this neighbourhood. 

 May not this be owing to the great number of water-rats which swarm all the streams, 

 destroying their eggs, as I believe they do those of the moorhen and water-rail ? — /. 

 W. Hulke ; 155, Lower Street, Deal. 



Remarks on the Migration of Swallows (Hirundo rustica). — They who have paid 

 any attention to the subject of the migration of swallows must have frequently ob- 

 served, that after the general flight has departed, and not a swallow is to be seen, a 

 few will often appear again after a considerable interval, later in the season. This 

 remark was well exemplified here last autumn. I lost sight of the swallows on the 

 5th of October, on which day I observed a few. Ten days elapsed, and not a swallow 

 to be seen in this neighbourhood. On the 16th, however, I observed one flit across 

 the window as I was dressing in the morning ; on the 17th two appeared ; and on 

 the 18th, though it was very cold and snow had fallen in the morning, five or six 

 swallows and one house martin were to be seen sporting throughout the greater part 

 of the day on the south side of the house, and between the church and the sheltered 

 walk of trees, occasionally perching and sitting in a row on the sill of one of the south 

 attic windows of the house. In this situation they allowed us to approach them 

 through the chamber from behind, the window being closed. They were evidently all 

 of them young birds, which had but recently left the nest, and had yet had no great 

 experience of the world. They remained with us on the 19th and 20th, joined, on the 

 latter day, by a second martin, one of which, however, before evening, was found dead 

 on the sill of the window, having perished probably from cold, to the no small grief of 

 some members of the family, to whom they had become objects of considerable inte- 

 rest. On the 21st and 22nd the party was reduced to one or two swallows and one 



