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THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Two Young Cuckoos fed by a Titlark. — A short time ago I called 

 to see an ornithological friend who resides some little distance from 

 this place, and he informed me that last August he had watched a 

 Titlark feed two young Cuckoos near his residence. In reply to my 

 inquiry whether he might not have been mistaken, having suggested 

 after all that there might have been two foster-parents, he declared 

 without hesitation that he had watched a single bird feed one of the 

 Cuckoos, then fly away for a short distance and return to feed the 

 other, and this he had witnessed repeatedly. Two eggs of the Cuckoo 

 in the nest of its dupe is not a very rare occurrence in this district, 

 but up to the present I have never known foster-parents rear two — 

 indeed, the gastronomic requirements of one Cuckoo are so heavy, 

 in addition to its being of such a quarrelsome disposition, that such 

 an occurrence would be of more than ordinary interest. Young 

 Cuckoos are so very fractious, un tractable, and of such a wandering 

 nature as to render it not improbable that they may lose their own 

 foster-parents occasionally. — E. P. Butterfield (Bank House, 

 Wilsden). 



Honey-Buzzard (Pernis apivorus) in Staffordshire. — On Sept. 30th 

 last, Lieut. -Col. E. S. P. Wolferstan, of Statfold, Tamworth, reports 

 in ' The Field ' that his gamekeeper shot a Honey-Buzzard within 

 half a mile of his house. This record, taken in conjunction with the 

 occurrences of this bird in the Eastern Counties reported by the Eev. 

 F. L. Blathwayt and Mr. Dye (Zool. 1908, pp. 428, 468) in the same 

 month, would seem to show that there was an immigration of this 

 species at that time, and if possible, it would be interesting to ascertain 

 if all the birds obtained were young birds, and their sex ? We have now 

 six recorded instances of the occurrence of the Honey-Buzzard in 

 Staffordshire, besides Mr. C. Buchanan's statement in ' The Zoolo- 

 gist ' for 1856, p. 5096, that the bird nested in this county in the year 

 1841. The editor of 'The Field,' commenting on the last recorded 

 instance of this bird shot in Staffordshire, says : — " An inoffensive 

 summer visitor, which might well have been spared. Unlike other 

 of the larger hawks, its prey consists chiefly of insects and their 

 larvae, wasps, bees, beetles, and earthworms." Would that our land- 

 owners could be prevailed upon to spare Honey-Buzzards, which 

 then might once more be induced to stay and breed with us ! — John 

 R. B. Masefield (Rosehill, Cheadle, Staffordshire). 



Snow Geese in Co. Mayo. — A day or so after the great snowstorm 

 of Dec. 29th, 1908, that was so severe over Scotland, parts of England, 

 and the northern counties of Ireland, but which passed so lightly 



