390 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of a young Cuckoo in a Twite's nest, recorded by Mr. W. Wilson. 

 Mr. Wilson's note (ibid., p. 264) had seemed to me highly suggestive 

 of wrong identification ; and I ventured to question the accuracy of 

 his observations, and to ask for further information on some questions 

 which seemed to me to arise from Mr. Wilson's notes on this subject. 

 As an editorial note appended to mine expressed complete confidence 

 in Mr. Wilson's accuracy, I did not venture at the time to say anything 

 further. However, " magna est Veritas, et prsevalebit " ; and it seems 

 now that Mr. Wilson's Twite is AntJnis praten&is ! As Mr. Wilson has 

 asked for further inquiry about the Twite and its distribution, I may 

 add that this bird breeds in most parts of the British Islands where 

 moors, mountains, and exposed heathy places are found, being by no 

 means confined to the northern parts. As a breeding species, however, 

 it is much less common on the eastern site of our islands than it is in 

 Ireland and the West of Scotland. A well-known Scottish ornithologist 

 to whom I was speaking about this bird some months ago informed 

 me that it does not breed commonly, if at all, near Aberdeen, or in the 

 lower parts of Aberdeenshire; so that it is at least doubtful whether 

 the nest is to be found at all in Mr. Wilson's neighbourhood. In 

 Ireland, in former years, I was quite familiar with the nest of the 

 Twite ; and my friend Mr. E. J. Ussher, to whose description of this 

 bird, its nest and eggs, in Ussher and Warren's ' Birds of Ireland,' I 

 beg to refer Mr. Wilson, probably has as good an acquaintance with 

 the breeding habits of the Twite as any man living. The favourite 

 haunts of this bird in Ireland are the rough heathy slopes and 

 headlands cresting the great cliffs overlooking the ocean on the north, 

 west, and south coasts ; the more exposed and wind-swept, the better 

 the Twite seems to like them. It also breeds on the inland mountains, 

 but not on the low flat bogs of the central plain, as these, though 

 heath-clad, are perhaps too wet for its liking. I have, however, found 

 the nest on a small stretch of bog-land in co. Down, under the edge 

 of a tuft of rushes in a dry spot where there was no heath, a place 

 remote from any hill. This is, I think, exceptional, but I was informed 

 this year that the nest has since been found in the same locality. The 

 hills and moors of the North of England are a well-known breeding- 

 place ; indeed, this species was first made known to science, nearly 

 two and a half centuries ago, from specimens obtained in the 

 neighbourhood of Sheffield by Francis Jessop. In Ireland the Twite 

 frequently lays six eggs, and Mr. Ussher mentions having obtained 

 two clutches of seven, but there are seldom as few as four in a complete 

 clutch. From what Mr. Parkin says {ante, p. 348), I gather that the 

 same holds good in England. The nest is very generally on the 



