Birds. 2589 



tipped with white, the rest blackish brown. Throat and belly of a pure white ; breast 

 and flanks of a white, with a very delicate rose tint ; vent and under coverts of the tail 

 of a light brownish red. The lower mandible of a yellowish brown at its base, the up- 

 per one black, much grooved, and thick. The legs, claws, and toes black and strong. 

 The length same as the female. This bird is very common in Italy and the southern 

 parts of France and Piedmont, and sometimes is found in Switzerland. It builds its 

 nest sometimes in low bushes, and not uncommonly in holes of rocks and walls, also 

 on the roofs of deserted houses, and lays four to five eggs, white, irregularly marked 

 with yellowish brown spots, chiefly at the larger end, about the size of the garden 

 warbler, but more pointed at the small end. This description, which agrees most ac- 

 curately with my birds and eggs, I have taken from the ' Manuel d' Ornithologie ' of 

 M. Temminck, tome i. p. 200. I may, perhaps, be allowed to add, that this is now 

 the third addition to the list of British Birds which has been made by the zeal and 

 activity of Mr. Graham, the Larus Rossii and Otis Mc Queenii having first come into 

 his hands. — W. M. E. Milner ; Nunappleton. 



The Ring Ouzel (Turdus torquatus) Nesting near Lowestoft. — I am informed that, 

 during the spring of this year, two pairs of the ring ouzel nested at Gunton, near 

 Lowestoft, which is a much more southerly locality than the usual nesting places of 

 this bird, though I believe the same thing has previously occurred in that parish. — J. 

 H. Gumey ; Easton, Norwich, September 6, 1849. 



Note on the Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus).* — As you have contributed so much to the 

 information and amusement of that numerous class of readers who take an interest in 

 subjects of natural history, I consider it my duty to communicate first to you, what 

 appears to me a new fact in the habits and character of that general favourite the 

 cuckoo. An egg of this bird was brought to me on the 6th inst., which had been 

 taken from the nest of the yellow bunting, at a short distance from this town, and 

 the boy who got the egg gave the following account, which I think may be relied on. 

 When bird-nesting on the previous Saturday, he found a nest of the gold spink (a lo- 

 cal name for the yellow bunting) with the young birds just hatched. On visiting the 

 nest the following day, he flushed the old bird, having seen her sitting on it, but the 

 young birds were all excluded, and were lying dead near ; and, to his surprise, a single 

 egg — the one he brought to me — occupied the place of the callow brood. He took 

 away the egg (which is now in my possession), so that it is impossible to corroborate 

 the statement in any degree. The above circumstance was first named to me by 

 Tom Green, a well-known character and naturalist in this town, whom I have always 

 found to be accurate in his observations on birds, and by him I was referred to the boy. 

 On my objecting to Green that the accident appeared incredible, because unnatural, 

 and contrary to strong parental instinct, he replied, " Aye, Sir, but little birds are 

 mightily ta'en up with a cuckoo, they'll aw'most dee out for them ;" and he related 

 the following fact which came under his own observation. When out with his gun, 

 collecting birds to stuff (animal-preserving being one of his many trades), he shot at 

 and wounded a cuckoo, which, after flying some distance, fell upon a hedge with its 

 wings outstretched ; the attendant bird, which in this case was one of the pipits, con- 

 tinued in the flight of its patron after the shot, and when Green approached, he found 



* This letter is addressed to Mr. Yarrell, by whom it is obligingly commu- 

 nicated. 



vn 2l • 



