184 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



later in the day, as a careful search failed to again reveal it. 

 The Stone Curlew is a most interesting bird ; we have kept it in 

 captivity, and have studied its habits in its breeding haunts in 

 Norfolk. It is not a common bird in Britain, and is extremely 

 restricted in its distribution in this country, there being only 

 a few favoured spots in the South of England where it is to be 

 found breeding. 



Another extremely rare bird in the district (the Wryneck) was 

 killed by telegraph-wires near Drumburgh on June 27th, 1909. 

 James Smith, who dissected the bird, said it was a female, and 

 had evidently been nesting. The Wryneck has only been recorded 

 in two instances in Cumberland during the last fifty years, but 

 T. C. Heysham records it as breeding regularly near Carlisle in 

 his time. 



A new bird has been added to the Westmorland list — the 

 Golden Oriole (Oriolus galbula). An immature male bird of this 

 species was picked up dead in the vicarage garden at Brathay, 

 near Windermere, on May 16th, 1909, and sent to the Carlisle 

 Museum by the Kev. T. H. Baines, who said it had been seen on 

 the previous day by his neighbour, Mr. Whitwell. Six degrees 

 of frost were registered on the night of May 15th, and this no 

 doubt was responsible for the death of the rare and delicate 

 straggler. 



In the early part of the year (Jan. 2nd) a flock of Snow 

 Geese were reported to have been seen on the Solway. They 

 were flying west, and were seen near Annan by two gentlemen, 

 who had a good view of them as they flew close over the golf- 

 course. The visits of this Nearctic species to the Solway have 

 been few and of short duration ; there has never been any 

 possibility of obtaining an example to fully authenticate their 

 occurrence. Wild Geese were again numerous on the Solway 

 marshes, and six species were reported on the Cumberland side, 

 i. e. Grey Lag, Bean, Pink-foot, White-fronted, Barnacle, and 

 Brent. The Grey Lag has been fairly numerous ; in fact, 

 Mr. W. Nichol says that in his locality more Grey Lags than 

 any other species were killed, the next in point of numbers 

 being the Barnacle. The Pink-foot is, however, the predominant 

 Grey Goose, and the White-fronted the rarest. The Barnacle is 

 not quite so numerous as it was ten years ago. 



