390 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and Meath. It then flew up on the telegraph-wire over the railway 

 viaduct, when I had a good opportunity of noting the diamond-shaped 

 black mark on the throat and breast, and the very long tail. The 

 picture in Morris's 'British Birds' very aptly represents the bird as I 

 saw it at the Delvin. I had never seen one in Ireland before, and but 

 once in England, near Clifton Suspension Bridge. Mr. Ussher, in his 

 ' Birds of Ireland,' has some interesting records of the occurrence of 

 this bird, and Mr. B. M. Barrington, in his ' Migration of Birds,' 

 notices its occurrence at the Blackwater Bank and Codling Lightships ; 

 he also received a fine specimen in 1900 from Inishtrahull. — Charles 

 W. Benson. 



[In these pages Mr. Robert Warren has recorded the presence of 

 this species — the sixth year in succession — on the island of Bartragh, 

 in Killala Bay (cf.ante, p. 190). — Ed.] 



A Second Brood of Starlings. — A year or two ago I sent you a note 

 (Zool. 1897, p. 334) as to a pair of Starlings having reared a second 

 brood in the roof of an adjoining house. That brood came to an un- 

 timely end through having been frightened out of their nest by work- 

 men before they were sufficiently mature. I have for some time been 

 aware that a second brood was in progress this autumn in the roof of 

 the same house. (Were they the progeny of the same parents as the 

 former brood ?) On Sept. 27th five healthy and vigorous young birds 

 were " grubbing" on the lawn, practically strong enough to take care 

 of themselves, but receiving occasional help from their parents. — R. 

 M'Lachlan (Lewisham, London). 



Nesting of the Grey Crow in Suffolk. — Referring to Col. Butler's 

 note [ante, p. 350), I may mention that the late Mr. N. Fenwick Hele, 

 in the second edition of his ' Notes or Jottings about Aldeburgh' (p. 77), 

 records the nesting of the Royston or Hooded Crow at Hazlewood, 

 near Aldeburgh, in 1872 and 1873 ; and not long ago, when arranging 

 the eggs in the Ipswich Museum, Mr. Woolnough and I found an egg 

 marked in Mr. Hele's handwriting, "Royston, Hazlewood," among 

 them. — Julian G. Tuck (Tostock Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds). 



Cuckoo calling in September in Italy. — In the last number of ' The 

 Zoologist ' (p. 350), Mr. J. W. Payne alludes to the fact that Sir Conan 

 Doyle, in ' Rodney Stone,' makes the Cuckoo call in September. Allow 

 me charitably to suggest that Sir Conan had heard the bird in the 

 South of Europe, for I have just had a postcard from my friend Mr. 

 B. W. Henderson, Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, dated Bibbiena, 

 Sept. 6th, in which he writes : — " Heard the Cuckoo yesterday in first- 



