140 Birds. 



seek the shores of the neighbouring county of Kent, where the distance 

 from land to land being considerably less, the voyage may be per- 

 formed with comparative ease and security. The peculiar flight of 

 the Motacillida) may perhaps be also taken into consideration. There 

 appears to be a continual tendency, as it were, to sink towards the 

 ground, which is counteracted by a sudden jerk of the wings, per- 

 formed at regular intervals, and producing a swinging motion in the 

 air, w^hich, when compared with the flight of other birds, has at least 

 the appearance of being difficult and laboured. 



It is certain that these birds never retrace their course in a westerly 

 direction ; and that, from this period, throughout the entire county, 

 the species continues to be comparatively but sparingly distributed, 

 until augmented by fresh arrivals from the continent, in the warm 

 days of the ensuing spring. A. E. Knox. 



New Grove, Petworth, March, 1843. 



(To be continued). 



Note on the Grey Wagtail. The grey wagtail {Motacilla hoarula) 

 resides with us all the year : in the winter season it is to be found 

 along every brook, and even on the banks of the rivers Sheaf and Don 

 in the middle of our populous town ; then, of course, in its plainer 

 plumage. In the beginning of April it acquires its black throat, and 

 then retires to the margins of the mountain streams on the adjacent 

 moors, to breed. — Jolin Heppenstall ; Upperthorpe, near Sheffield, 

 March, 1843. 



Notes on the occurrence of some of the rarer British Birds in the 

 County of Cornwall.'^ By Edward Hearle Rodd, Esq. 



Among the many interesting examples in British Ornithology which 

 the county of Cornwall has from time to time displayed, and more 

 particularly since the attention of naturalists has been directed to the 

 favorable opportunities which the county presents, from its maritime, 

 peninsular, and extreme westerly position in the kingdom, for ascer- 

 taining the existence of occasional stragglers, which, according to mo- 

 dern naturalists, are entitled to a place in the British Fauna, provided 

 they are so found in a natural and wild state, I have the pleasure of 

 reporting that I have ascertained that the following rare British birds 

 may now be included in our Cornish catalogue. 



* Read before the Royal Institute of Cornwall. 



I 



