NOTES AND QUERIES. 'iTS 



of thirty-seven species in about three or four hours included the Reed- and 

 Sedge- Warblers, the Lesser Tern (also observed at We3'mouth, May 13th), 

 and other interesting birds. 



The New Forest : Tn a walk through Lyudhurst to Eraery Down and 

 Brockenhurst, I only added the Stock-Dove and Nuthatch to my former 

 lists ; but I found the Wood-Warbler especially numerous there also. 



At the close of our visit to delightful Bournemouth, we journeyed to 

 Weston-super-Mare, which I found also an excellent station, especially in 

 the Bleadon and Uphill direction. There I saw and heard more than one 

 Cirl-Bunting, and at Brean Down had a fine view of a small flock of 

 Sheldrakes disporting themselves in the sea. The Raven still breeds on 

 this lofty promontory, and Mr. Pople, our boatman, assured us that about 

 two hours before our arrival two old birds, accompanied by five young ones, 

 had for some time hovered over their heads ; unluckily they did not favour 

 us with an appearance. 



I have kept to the close of this rambling communication the following 

 incident : — On Sunday, May 12th, when walking up the Vale Road, Bourne- 

 mouth, I heard a bird in the shrubbery of Carlton House, whose note I 

 believed I recognized at once as that of the bird I bad heard only at Karlsbad 

 and at Brunnen in 1893, and I said to my wife, " That's Bonelli " ; alluding 

 to Bonelli's Warbler, which was identified for me by Rev. W. Warde 

 Fowler on the Axenstein some years ago. On the 14th I heard and saw 

 the bird again, and called at Carlton House, where the proprietor, Mr. 

 Hamlet Kinsey, received me most kindly, and said that he had been 

 watching that bird for some days, that he had never heard one like it before, 

 and wondered what it could be, as his attention had been at once arrested 

 by its unfamiliar note. I wrote at once to Mr. Warde Fowler, and had a 

 reply from him, in which he said : " Your description of the bird, as you 

 saw it, is Bonelli all over ; your account of the song is utterly puzzling. 

 The only conclusion I can come to is that it is either Bonelli's or Benson's 

 Warbler, and which I can't say." Nor can I, nor do I lay any claim to be 

 the discoverer of this Warbler in England. My object is rather to direct 

 the attention of other ornithologists to the matter, who may have longer 

 opportunities of o'oserving the migrants on the south coast of England than 

 I had, or can have. — Charles W. Benson (Karlsruhe, Montpelier Hill, 

 Dublin). 



REPTILIA. 



Black Adder in South Wales. — On Thursday, June 13th, I received, 

 from the Rev. D. H. Davies, Cenarth, South Wales, a serpent for identifica- 

 tion. It is a Black Adder, a variety of our poisonous reptile extremely 

 rare in this country, there being only two British specimens at South 



ZooL Mh ser. vol. V., July, 1901. ~ Y 



