230 T&E ZOOLOGIST. 



first week of May. Mr. Borrer, in his ■ Birds of Sussex/ records but one 

 example, and the species is not noticed by Mr. Knox in his ' Ornithological 

 Rambles in Sussex.' I have seen the bird, which is in the hands of Mr. T. 

 Sorrell, taxidermist, of Old Humphrey's Avenue, Hastings, and it is an 

 adult male in full plumage. Mr. Sorrell has also had a Bittern through 

 his hands, which was killed in the early part of February of this year, 

 close to Hellinglv Station, near Hailsham. — Thomas Parkin (Fairseat, 

 High Wickham, Hastings). 



Cirl Bunting in Dorsetshire. — Mr. Aplin, in his paper on the Cirl 

 Bunting in Great Britain (p. 176), quotes Mr. Mansel-Pleydell's work on 

 Dorset Birds, in which I am reported to have shot a Cirl Bunting at 

 Poxwell. This was a misapprehension on Mr. Mansel-Pleydell's part. 

 I have frequently seen the Cirl Bunting on the road between Bloxworth and 

 Poole, by Lytchett Minster, and (less frequently) in this more immediate 

 neighbourhood, the last occurrence being near Bere Regis, where I 

 watched a pair close to me for some time on the 2nd of July, 1888. 

 The male occasionally sang a portion of the ordinary song of the Yellow 

 Bunting, but omitted the usual plaintive coda. T never shot a Cirl 

 Bunting — nor indeed ever saw one — at Poxwell, though I do not doubt 

 but that it occurs there and at other points along the coast. In the 

 summer of 1854 the late Mr. Frederick Bond and I obtained several nests, 

 containing a total of ten eggs, along the coast from Weymouth to Wyke 

 and Chickerell ; and I had specimens of the bird, shot near Poole, in my 

 collection for many years. — 0. P. Cambridge (Bloxworth, Dorset). 



Birds in Queen Charlotte Island, British Columbia.— Though the 

 readers of ' The Zoologist' are, I believe, chiefly interested in the fauna of 

 Britain, a few notes I have made during my fifteen months' residence on 

 the birds of this locality may not be unwelcome. My attention has been 

 confined almost entirely to land birds, and even of these I do not pretend 

 to present a complete list, as other duties have prevented my doing more 

 than note the birds that have come in my way. This island, I may remark, 

 being washed by the Japan current, enjoys a climate no severer than that 

 of Yorkshire. We are 100 miles from the mainland of British Columbia, 

 though hills in the outlying islands of both British Columbia and Alaska are 

 distinctly visible in clear weather, and the widest stretch of water does not 

 exceed thirty miles. A pine forest covers the island, which is for the most 

 part flat, though some hills in the interior reach an altitude of 1500 feet. 

 The Raven, Corvus corax,* is, strange to say, our commonest bird. As 

 I write I can see seven perched on the wooden fence surrounding my 

 garden. They act as the village scavengers, and are as bold as London 



* I adopt the nomenclature of Dr. E. Coues' ' Key to N. Am. Birds,' 

 2nd edition, 1884, 



