152 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of that era. The last nine local records that have been recorded were 

 between 1875-1898. Personally I have been able to examine but 

 two of the latter specimens ; there is always the doubt of a feral 

 fitchet-coloured Ferret having been mistaken for this animal. — 

 J. Steele Elliott (Dowles Manor, Shropshire). 



AVES. 



Occurrences of Aquatic Warblers in the British Isles. — In my 

 paper on "Aquatic "Warbler on Migration obtained on Tuskar Eock," 

 published in the March issue of the ' Zoologist ' (pp. 81 et seq.), 

 I devoted a paragraph to "Previous Occurrences of the Aquatic 

 Warbler in the British Isles," but omitted to mention a subsequent 

 occurrence to that of my Tuskar bird, namely, that of one obtained 

 at Fair Isle on October 23rd, 1914. The omission arose from the 

 fact that when I sent my paper to press I had not received the 

 January number of the ' Scottish Naturalist,' in which Mr. Eagle- 

 Clarke recorded capture of the specimen (p. 5). Two points interested 

 me very much in connection with what Mr. Clarke says about his 

 specimen. One, that " in the dress of rich rufous buff heavily streaked 

 with black on the upper surface, it is a very conspicuous bird." I 

 quite agree. On the other hand, the Sedge-Warbler is not by any 

 means conspicuous, and, as insisted on in my article, these two 

 Warblers are quite distinguishable, irrespective of the conspicuous 

 medial buff head stripe of the Aquatic Warbler. The other point of 

 interest is that the Tuskar and Fair Isle birds have been detected in 

 consecutive seasons at areas in the British Isles very remote from one 

 another. This makes us all the more expectant that the distribution 

 both in latitude and longitude of this species may be more extensive 

 than we had thought it might have been. So far my prophecy that 

 we may expect to find the Aquatic Warbler "turning up at light- 

 stations with increasing frequency " has been strengthened by this 

 record one year after the occurrence of my Tuskar bird. But we 

 must await further evidence of the increasing frequency of the bird's 

 appearance before we can prove my remarks to be, of a truth, pro- 

 phetic. — C. J. Patten (University, Sheffield). 



Birds Travelling North in Autumn. — In the ' Zoologist ' for 

 March (ante, p. 113) reference is made by my friend Mr. H. B. Booth 

 to the fact that many of our migratory birds, prior to their departure 

 in autumn, are to be found north of their breeding-haunts. I do not 

 think that movement is confined altogether to the larger species, but 

 I am disposed to think it extends to many of our passerine species. 



