NOTES AND QUERIES. 467 



song and cat-like calls of the male Orioles in their brilliant livery, — 

 watching, too, the first essays at flight of the young bird that has newly 

 left the hammock-like nest, — I never had the pleasure of meeting with this 

 species on migration until April of the present year. On the 20th of that 

 month, Messrs. Johnson, A. C. Chapman, and myself happened to walk up 

 to the head of lloncevaux Pass from the Spanish side, and saw several 

 Golden Orioles resting on passage. First, a male and female flew across a 

 beech-clad hollow on the hill-side, and then several brilliant males followed 

 in company. The first two birds had perhaps already paired. With regard 

 to the reviewer's remarks (p. 437) on the plumage of the Golden Oriole, I 

 do not think that the "covering " phrase, to which exception is taken, can 

 fairly be construed to bear the interpretation put upon it. The female 

 Golden Oriole is " a similar but duller bird than the male," similar in flight 

 and general appearance, though much more soberly attired. It is not easy 

 to study the female Orioles, because they frequent the higher branches of 

 forest trees, and are shy and retiring. But that the female of this Oriole 

 gradually progresses towards the yellow dress of the male, I have no doubt 

 at all. It was long ago so stated by Hoy, and I am not aware that his 

 statement, quoted in the 4th edition of ' Yarrell,' has been challenged until 

 the present time. Even the plumage of the young resembles distantly that 

 of the adult, i. e., yellow strongly predominates. I am not sure, however, 

 that the reviewer and I have the same colour sense. It is possible that 

 what appears to him green, appears to me to be yellow. Recently a lady 

 casually informed me that the breast ot the Great Titmouse is green, not 

 yellow. My reviewer may take the same view. At all events, though the 

 female of Oriolus galbula is usually " a duller bird " than the male, she is 

 similar to her mate in everything but brilliancy of tint. I do not think 

 that the female of this Oriole would be at all exposed to danger, when 

 sitting, by bright colours. It is not easy to see even a male Golden Oriole 

 in the top of a big oak or elm in the breeding season. The birds crouch 

 close to the boughs if alarmed, and neither they nor their nests are easy 

 to distinguish among the fully-expanded leaves. — H. A. Macpherson 

 (Carlisle). 



Inland Occurrences of the Manx Shearwater.— I have met with four 

 occurrences of this species inland during the autumn, namely, the one 

 recorded in the current number of The Zoologist,' p. 4x!8, near Retford, in 

 the first week of September ; another killed on the first of the same month 

 at Wooton, near Ulceby, by a reaping machine, and now in the collection of 

 Mr. J. Topham ; another at Grainsby, also in Lincolnshire, which I have; 

 and a fourth in Holderness. I have not been able to ascertain the dates of 

 the two latter with any degree of accuracy, but in the case of the two former 

 (the 1st September and first week in September), it is by no means im- 

 probable that these may have been driven quite across the country from some 



