2412 Birds. 



now stuffed, and in the Lynn Museum. — /. W. Lukis ; Heacham Hall, Norfolk, 

 March 3, 1849. 



Occurrence of the Great Gray Shrike in Suffolk. — Two specimens (a male and 

 female) of this bird have been shot near Stowmarket during the past winter ; one by 

 Mr. Worledge, of Colton, — the other by the Rev. F. W. Freeman, of that town. — C. 

 R. Bree; Stowmarket, March, 1849. 



Early Arrival of Fieldfares (Turdus pilaris). — These winter visitors appear about 

 the beginning of October, and retire in the latter end of February or beginning of 

 March, depending upon the season ; I however have seen them as early as the 10th 

 of September (1848), and as late as May (1848), at Waxham, near Yarmouth, Nor- 

 folk. They come over, for the most part, separately or in small companies, but retire 

 in immense flocks. In plumage they differ much : a fine specimen of the variegated 

 kind (nearly white) was shot at Hickling, Norfolk (1848). — W. E. Cater; Queen's 

 College, Cambridge, February 22, 1849. 



Supposed Early Arrival of the Fieldfare. — I firmly believe the birds seen in Sep- 

 tember (Zool. 2382), and supposed to be fieldfares, were missel thrushes : at that 

 season of the year they are often seen in flocks of fifty or more, and are constantly 

 mistaken for fieldfares here. The fieldfare rarely, if ever, appears till the middle of 

 October, and the more usual time is the end of October and beginning of November. 

 — Henry Doubleday ; Epping, March 14, 1849. 



Arrival of the Wheatear (Sylvia OEnanthe) at Brighton. — I killed a specimen of 

 the wheatear yesterday, the 16th, close by the sea-shore, which no doubt had just ar- 

 rived ; but he — as the unerring messenger of Spring and true to Nature's laws — has 

 arrived punctually to the time pointed out by the scientific observations of the or- 

 nithologist, — the middle of March, — and which in this neighbourhood is a well-known 

 fact of the time of his arrival. — Thomas Thomcroft ; Brighton, March 17, 1849. 



Egg of Sylvia Hippolais. — I am much obliged by the several replies to my inquiry 

 respecting the egg of Temminck's Sylvia Hippolais. I think it appears pretty cer- 

 tain that the egg is known on the Continent, and that it differs entirely from the egg 

 of the English chiff-chaff, and also from the egg in my possession which gave rise to 

 the present remarks. I am too well acquainted with the habits, nidification, and egg 

 — in its many varieties — of the common wren (Troglodytes vulgaris of Temminck), to 

 entertain in any way the supposition proffered by the Curator of the Norwich Museum, 

 that the egg in question may belong to that bird. I am not so clear that it may not 

 be a variety of the chiff-chaff's egg ; but I do not believe that it is so. Not only the 

 egg, but the nest also, differed from those usually assigned to the chiff-chaff. I think 

 that my query, as to the probability of some other species of the Continental Sylvias 

 being occasional summer visitants in the South of England, is still open for consi- 

 deration ; and I cannot but entertain the opinion that the eggs which I described in 

 my former note, and which I never found except in the neighbourhood of Bristol, 

 afford some ground for believing that such is the fact. — W. Lean ; Birmingham, 3rd 

 mo., 1849. 



Nest and Eggs of Sylvia Hippolais. — Seeing an account of the nest and eggs of 

 Sylvia Hippolais (Zool. 2387), and thinking that it throws some light on the following 

 particulars, I am induced to send them. In the month of May, 1848, whilst I was 

 at Canterbury, I had a nest containing three eggs brought to me, by a boy, who said 

 he had taken it out of a kind of thicket, a few yards from a path leading through a 

 wood. The nest was placed about two or three feet from the ground : it was very 



