EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 439 



Mall, to the • Times,' at the end of July, states : — " For some years Cuckoos 

 have been in the habit of visiting the osier-bed on Chiswick Eyot very 

 early in the morning. This eyot runs into the London county boundary. 

 I always suspected that they were seeking nests to lay their eggs in. Three 

 weeks ago, when on the lawn by this house by the river, I heard a young 

 Cuckoo screaming for food in a privet-bush hanging over the river. Looking 

 among the thick branches with a glass, I could see its orange maw, and two 

 unhappy Sedge- Warblers working overtime putting food down its throat. 

 It was fully fledged, and could fly. For three weeks this bird has remained 

 in this and adjacent gardens by the river, being fed all the time by the 

 Sedge- Warblers. Every evening it took a flight up and down the river, 

 apparently practising and testing its strength. When hungry it screeched 

 at the rate of just one hundred screeches per minute, which had such an 

 effect on the nerves of other birds that I have seen even the irreclaimable 

 Sparrows fly down, peck up food, and fly into the thick bush where it was, 

 though I did not see them feed it. ' In July away he fly ' is part of Cuckoo 

 lore. It is now known that the young Cuckoos leave first. This one, 

 whose evening flights have been daily more extended, has gone. I dare say 

 among the birds of Chiswick Eyot it is regretted as a ■ fashionable departure.' " 



The above was at once supplemented, in the ' Daily Mail,' by Mr. A. E. 

 Day, of Highgate Hill, who wrote : — " Mr. Cornish's young Cuckoo at Chis- 

 wick is not uuique. Young Cuckoos have been hatched in Highgate Cemetery 

 this year. In one instance several of us watched a Hedge-Sparrow's nest in 

 which a Cuckoo had laid an egg, and the little bird sat and hatched out that 

 one egg. Although the bird left the nest on July 23rd, it may still be seen 

 .flying about the cemetery, fed by the Hedge-Sparrows. At least two Cuckoos, 

 to my knowledge, have been hatched here this season." 



This reintroduction of the Great Bustard (Otis tarda) seems to be in- 

 augurated in Norfolk, and the following letter from Lord Walsingham has 

 appeared in the 'Norfolk Chronicle': — 



" Sir, — An attempt is being made to reintroduce the Great Bustard in 

 what was formerly one of the favourite haunts of this fine bird on the bor- 

 ders of the Norfolk fens. This effort is due to the public spirit of an 

 English gentleman resident abroad, whose love of natural history has 

 induced him to incur considerable expense and trouble in the matter. It 

 is hoped that residents in Norfolk and Suffolk will agree to respect the 

 birds, which will probably be at large before this letter appears, and by pre- 

 venting their destruction will secure the success of an experiment to which 

 the reintroduction of the Capercailzie in Scotland affords a parallel instance 

 and au encouraging precedent. — Walsingham. Aug. 14th." 



