432 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



me to approach within a few feet without manifesting the slightest 

 fear. This species is a very irregular winter visitant, and visits at 

 wide intervals — as in the years 1878-79 — this district in considerable 

 numbers, since which years it has been very scarce. Eecently I was 

 passing near a garden when my attention was attracted to a bird at 

 a distance feeding on the seeds of soft grass (Holcus), which I 

 identified as a Twite (Linota flavirostris). I often see this species 

 here in autumn feeding on various seeds of wayside plants, but I do 

 not remember seeing it before feeding upon the seeds of grasses. 



Eecently (October) I saw anotber Mealy Eedpoll feeding upon 

 the seeds of the Meadow Sweet in the same place I saw the other, 

 which I have previously mentioned. This time a few Chaffinches 

 were amongst them, all male birds, the females having left here a 

 fortnight ago. Tbe first migration of House-Martins left here on 

 August 27th, all, or nearly all, of which were young birds — this was 

 fully a month before the old birds left. A friend of mine has been 

 describing a bird which I think can be no other than a Golden Oriole, 

 which he has seen with some Thrushes in a plantation about a mile 

 east of tbis village. My son Eosse states he found last summer a 

 Cuckoo's egg in the nest of a Tree-Pipit near Keighley, which is 

 quite an uncommon occurrence here ; the Cuckoo much prefers the 

 M< idow-Pipit as a fosterer. It is often saidthat the Cuckoo's eggs 

 vary more than any other British bird, but the Tree-Pipit's eggs 

 vary much more in this locality. Indeed, Cuckoo's eggs keep fairly 

 well to one type, which is very similar to the Skylark's egg in size 

 and coloration in this neighbourhood, so much so that I have often 

 wondered why the Cuckoo does not much more often lay its egg in 

 the nest of the Skylark, since there would be no difficulty in finding 

 nests with fresh eggs during the whole time the Cuckoo is with us, 

 for I consider the Lark our most abundant species. Is this similarity 

 of the eggs of the Cuckoo and Skylark a mere coincidence, or does 

 this fact stand in some vital relationship in the past history of the 

 Cuckoo '? Our son Eosse records the Goldfinch near Keighley, and it 

 has appeared this autumn in one of our neighbouring dales. It is some 

 years since I saw this species. I heard the Mistle-Thrush singing as 

 late as June 21st near Grasmere, and it was singing here in the 

 garden about the beginning of the new year. Whilst in Derbyshire 

 I saw a male Spotted Flycatcher feeding a female several times in the 

 kitchen garden of one of the lodges leading into Chatsworth Park. I 

 saw a Sandpiper in Chatsworth Park beside the river, which kept 

 flying into a plane tree, not merely perching on the lower branches, 



