NOTES AND QUERIES. 455 



however, is a mistake, as several other occurrences had been noted by 

 the time and before that note was published (see ' Birds of Dorset,' by 

 J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, p. 25). In this district of Dorsetshire, however, 

 where I have lived and noted its birds, with a few exceptional intervals, 

 during the last sixty years, the present occurrence of the Black Red- 

 start is the third only tbat I have recorded. The two otber records 

 were Sept. 1st, 1882, and Aug. 27th, 1898. — 0. Pickard-Cambridge 

 (Bloxworth, Dorset). 



British Examples of the White-spotted Bluethroat. — With refer- 

 ence to Mr. Nicoll's note on the above (ante, p. 431), may I point out 

 that the fact of the Yorkshire bird having occurred early in April seems 

 to indicate that it was most likely to have been one of the White-spotted 

 type ? The late Herr Gatke, who had scores of Bluethroats brought 

 to him (on one occasion sixty in a day), wrote, in his ' Birds of Heligo- 

 land' (p. 269) : — " The more southern breeding stations of the White- 

 spotted species become habitable at a very early period of the year, and 

 accordingly the few individuals which ever reach this island arrive as 

 early as the end of March, or during the first days of April ; at that 

 time winter still completely reigns in the nesting area of the northern 

 species, and does not yield to milder weather until three or four weeks 

 later. Accordingly, the spring migration of this latter species does not 

 take place until May." Of course, after the lapse of more than twenty- 

 seven years, I cannot remember all the details of the colouring of the 

 Yorkshire bird, but my notes were sent to this Journal very soon after 

 I saw it, and it was probably an adult female assuming the plumage of 

 the male. What became of it I do not know. — Julian G. Tuck (Tos- 

 tock Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds). 



Fire-crested Wren (Regulus ignicapillus) in Lancashire. — A fine 

 male specimen of this bird was brought to me for preservation on Oct. 

 15th by a Mr. Wyche, engineer at the Cheshire Lines Department, 

 Warrington, who found it on the railway near Southport. It had flown 

 into the telegraph wires and fractured its wing and neck, causing death. 

 I am told that it is more than fifty years since a specimen of this bird 

 was recorded in Lancashire, the last being taken in the Manchester 

 district. — J. Collins, Jun. (47, Pinness Brow, Warrington). 



Late Appearance of House-Martins at Eastbourne. — I noticed 

 several House-Martins (Chelidon urbica) in this neighbourhood on Nov. 

 26th, flying round their old nests, though for some time previously I 

 had not seen a single bird. I see that this is also the case on our 

 eastern coast. Is not this a late reappearance of the birds, which are 



