2590 Birds. 



it sitting 1 on the body of the dead cuckoo. It has been supposed by some, that small 

 birds follow the cuckoo for the sake of annoyance, mistaking it for a sparrow-hawk ; to 

 give public notice of a pirate abroad, and to warn all peaceful subjects of the air 

 against a common danger. But this is clearly not so, for the flight and cries clearly 

 distinguish the feelings in the two cases. The attendance on the cuckoo is at a dis- 

 tance, silent and respectful ; but in the other, we have a sort of hue and cry raised, as 

 it were, against a felon, and which is kept up from place to place, if not to the shame, 

 at least to the discomfiture of the culprit. The cuckoo is certainly a favourite with 

 them, as Green says, " they, the lesser birds, are mightily ta'en up with it," but to what 

 it owes its influence with its parasites I leave to you and other philosophical naturalists 

 to determine, I am content to relate, in simple terms, an interesting fact. — W. C. 

 Newby ; Stockton. 



Swallows Hibernating in the Cliff at Hastings.. — A labourer, named William 

 Joyce, who is now employed in excavating part of the East Hill for the foundation of 

 a house, told me yesterday that, in the month of December about fifteen years ago, 

 while he was working for Mr. William Ranger, who had the contract for cutting away 

 the " White Rock " which used to stand between this place and St. Leonard's, the men 

 found an immense quantity of swallows in a cleft in the rock. The birds were cling- 

 ing together in large " clots," and appeared to be dead, but were not frozen together, 

 and the weather being rather warm for the season, nor were they at all putrid or de- 

 cayed. The men carried out at least three railway -barrows full of the birds, which 

 were buried with the mould and rubbish from the cliff as it was wheeled away. Some 

 people from the town carried away a few of the birds to " make experiments with/' 

 but Joyce never heard any more of them. He mentioned the names of four persons 

 now in Hastings, who were then his fellow labourers, /and says, that forty or fifty of 

 Mr. Ranger's workmen were on the spot when the birds were found, and can confirm 

 what he says, both as to the finding and the very great quantity of the birds. There 

 are many crevices in the seaward surface of the cliffs about here, which apparently 

 penetrate the cliff for several yards. The birds were found about ten feet from the 

 surface of the rock facing the sea, and not very high up. — Edward Brown Fitton ; 

 Hastings, September 8th, 1849. 



Occurrence of the Bustard (Otis tarda) on Salisbury Plain. — I have had the good 

 fortune to see the great bustard on Salisbury Plain. It was on the 9th of August last 

 that I made a little trip, with a party of friends, to Stonehenge, and upon our return, 

 we had proceeded but a short distance before the bird in question made its appearance. 

 It must have been about half-past six, or perhaps seven o'clock, in the evening, when 

 we first saw it. We had then just passed a large plantation of firs, which forms a con- 

 spicuous object from Stonehenge. From the first moment of seeing the bird till its ul- 

 timate disappearance, seemed to be a considerable time, but as it had traversed a 

 great distance whilst in view, the length of time was probably deceiving, and perhaps 

 was not more than eight or ten minutes. During this time, it was almost constantly 

 on the wing, flying with a heavy, but tolerably rapid flight, and at an average height 

 of about twenty feet above the ground. But once only did it approach within gun- 

 shot of us ; it then crossed the road in front of us, and as I sat in front of the carriage 

 in which we were travelling, I saw its colours very distinctly. I asked the driver if 

 he knew what that bird was, and he said he did not, and had never seen such a bird 

 in his life. I then asked him what he imagined was the size of the bird, and his an- 

 swer was, " it can't be far short of a turkey." I afterwards put the latter question to 



