654 Birds. 



Others were observed at dif- Cuckoo first heard, April 29 



ferent intervals throughout Several of the Sylviadoe arrive, May 7 



the whole month: one of Corn-crake first heard, 9 



about 200 on the 20th. ...April 6 Swift, 15 



Wheatear, 8 



Most observations like the above are to be regarded only as negative evidence, — that 

 none of the species were seen or heard earlier, and that the individuals then observed 

 did not arrive later in the season. It is well to bear this in mind, as it is but seldom 

 indeed that the migratory birds are actually seen to arrive at their summer residence. 

 Almost invariably they have already occupied the ground, and seem as if already at 

 home when we first observe them. Again, a few — as an advanced guard as it were — 

 will be seen some days before the bulk of the species come. Thus, a few larks were 

 met with on the 12th and 14th ; but it was not until the 15th of February that the 

 main body arrived. Other birds will reach particular localities, and will remain con- 

 gregated there, according to the state of the weather perhaps, for weeks before they 

 begin to disperse to their breeding stations. Thus the lapwing, although all had ar- 

 rived by the first four or five days of March, did not separate until about the 19th of 

 the month. — G. Gordon ; Bimie, by Elgin, May 28, 1844. 



Note of the departure of some of the Winter Birds of Passage from Yarmouth, in 1844 



Jack snipe, about May 1 Whimbrel, May 24 



Golden plover 6 Turnstone, bar-tailed godwit, 



Sanderling, 10 little stint, common stint, 26 



Dotterel 20 Temminck's stint, 28 



Knot and grey plover, 22 Greenshank, 29 



William R. Fisher ; Great Yarmouth, May 30, 1844. 



Note of the breeding of some resident and migratory Birds at Yarmouth, in 1844. 



Lapwing, about April 2 Whinchat, water-rail and com- 



Blackbird, thrush, missel thrush 3 mon snipe, April 18 



Waterhen, 12 Keeve, May 8 



Meadow pipit, 16 Reed-warbler, 16 



Redshank, sheildrake, 26 Cuckoo, 26 



The 16th of May is, I believe, rather early for the eggs of the reed-warbler, which, 

 about here does not generally lay till the second week in June. I dissected two cuc- 

 koos on the 29th of April, one of which was a female. The stomachs of both contained 

 the remains of caterpillars, and in that of the female, I was rather surprised at finding 

 a piece of flint, of considerable size. The other contained no stony substance what- 

 ever. The eggs in the female cuckoo were at this time very little enlarged. — Id. 



Note on the capture of a Red-legged Falcon. — " Falco rufipes. — Last week a fine* 

 male specimen of this exceedingly rare falcon, being the fourth full-grown one on re- 

 cord as having been obtained in England, was shot by the gamekeeper of the Right 

 Hon. E. R. Petre, in a wood near Selby. It now forms part of the collection of Mr. 

 Massey Hutchinson, of that place." — Eastern Counties Herald, May 16, 1844. 



Anecdote of a Battle between two Kestrils. Kestril hawks are exceedingly savage 

 with each other. I had been standing waiting, hid in a covert, for rabbits, and had 

 been immoveable for about half an hour, near an open space, when they came out 

 to feed. All of a sudden, from two trees near me, and about fifty yards apart, two 

 hawks rushed simultaneously at each other, and began fighting most furiously, scream- 

 ing and tumbling over and over in the air. I fired and shot them both, and they were 



