NOTES AND QUERIES. 195 



yet with some other species — as Golden Pheasant, &c. — I have often 

 thought the hest plumaged birds had the palest straw-coloured eyes — 

 almost white. That anger or excitement in any degree alters the 

 colour and consequent expression of the eyes is well known. I recollect 

 a Parrot which had normally yellow eyes, but when angry or very 

 pleased a red zone appeared around the black pupil. Those who have 

 reared any of the Falconida, must have noticed how the colour of the 

 eyes differ from infancy to maturity. It may be a rule that all birds 

 of the same species and sex, at any stated age, may nave eyes of a 

 similar colour, but I have met with exceptions that prove the rule. It 

 is well known that in the adult Green Woodpecker the eyes are usually 

 white, or very pale bluish grey ; but on one occasion I saw a bird in 

 which one eye was normal and the other a dark brown, and in another 

 instance both eyes were brown. It may have been only a coincidence, 

 but in each case it was a female thus marked, and it was quite 

 surprising how the dark eyes altered the general appearance of the 

 whole bird. "When I say the eyes were brown, I am not alluding to 

 the discoloured appearauce sometimes caused by rupture of blood-vessel 

 or otherwise, as is sometimes the case when certain parts of the head 

 have been injured. The quotation from the ' Handbook of British 

 Birds ' of the change in colour from red to yellow is interesting, and, 

 although there may be no connection whatever between bird and 

 insect, yet all of us know the fact that in some species of Lepidoptera 

 — burnets, tigers, &c. — the variation is usually from red to yellow, or 

 from scarlet to orange. — G. B. Cokbin (Ringwood, Hants). 



Spring Arrivals near Canterbury. — The following notes collected 

 near Canterbury during the Easter holidays show the advent of spring 

 in that district : — 



April 13th. Swallow seen, and stated to be the first this year. 

 14th. Heard a Wryneck. 15th. While walking in a small wood with 

 two friends, I heard and saw a Nightingale, but, as I had only just 

 come from town, I cannot state if it was heard earlier. Found two 

 nests of young Thrushes. 16th. Saw a Swallow. Found a Wild 

 Duck sitting on her nest. The bird allowed me to stroke her, hissing 

 the while. Once when she moved slightly I counted seven eggs, but 

 there must have been quite a dozen. The nest was made entirely of 

 down, and the bird fitted into it most beautifully. Peewits were 

 nesting on the marshes, and two pairs of Redshanks kept circling 

 round us, whistling to each other at times. Moorhens were very 

 abundant. Found a Blackbird's nest with one egg. 17th. Saw a 

 Swallow out at sea at Whitstable. Heard four Nightingales in 



