Birds. 



8329 



as the redstart is a good friend to the gardener. Some time after, when T was working 

 in that part of the garden where they had built, my attention was drawn to the hole by 

 the loud clamour of a young bird, much too large for the young of the redstart. The 

 bird was a young cuckoo, whose wants kept the foster-parents constantly coming and 

 going. Before it was able to fly it found the hole very inconvenient, and took up its 

 abode in the braucbes of a currant bush that overshadowed it. I have not the least 

 doubt about the inability of the old cuckoo to get into the hole to lay her egg in the 

 nest, for it was an impossibility. Did she lay the egg first and then introduce it into 

 the nest by her bill ? To this question I can give no definite answer, except that I 

 know of no other way. — John Whatt ; Kir by Moorside, Yorkshire. 



Birds of the Amur : Zosterops chloronotus, Acanthylis caudacuta, Reguloides super- 

 ciliosus. — Mr. Ravenstein's list of the birds of the Amur territories is avowedly copied 

 from Schrenk, and M. von Schrenck's list has been criticised in the ' Proceedings of the 

 Linneari Society' for January, 1861. The nomenclature would in some few cases be 

 more satisfactory were it carefully revised, from inspection of Amurian specimens, by 

 a qualified ornithologist of Western Europe. The Australian Zosterops chloronotus 

 can hardly occur (absolutely one and the same) in North-east Asia ; and as for Acan- 

 thylis caudacuta, so far is this from being specially an Australian species, it is not 

 only the Hirundo ciris of Pallas, but the Acanthylis leuconotus of Hodgson, common 

 in the Himalayan regions and found also in China. Mr. Gould, in the Introduction 

 to his work on the Birds of Australia, mentions its having been killed in England, 

 which is much less remarkable than the occurrence there of Reguloides superciliosus 

 (Regulus modestus of Gould), another Amurian bird which is not uncommon in Lower 

 Bengal during the cold season, and other feeble-winged species that might be adduced. 

 But though I have not at this moment of writing the critique on M. von Schrenk's 

 bird-catalogue handy of access, I feel that I have been anticipated in the above and 

 other remarks that occur to me upon looking over the list as copied by Mr. Ravenstein. 

 —Edward Blyth ; Calcutta, October 1, 1862. 



Acanthylis caudacuta and Reguloides superciliosus. — The only record of the occur- 

 rence of the spinetailed swallow (Acanthylis caudacuta) in Britain is by myself, in the 

 'Zoologist' for 1846 (Zool. 1492). The specimen in question was shot at Great 

 Horkesley, near Colchester, was sent in the flesh to the late Thomas Hall, birdstuffer, of 

 the City Road, and while there was examined by the late Mr. Yarrell, by the late Mr. 

 Edward Doubleday,by Mr. W. R. Fisher, and by myself. It was then stuffed and returned 

 to the owner, Mr. Catchpool of Colchester. It is the best authenticated record of any 

 single straggler that has yet appeared in the British list. I think, however, that I was 

 in error in giving this bird too hastily the name of "Australian " spinetailed swallow, 

 which has led our superficial ornithologists to regard its simple history with doubt, so 

 easily are non-practicals misled by a name. It must be candidly admitted that suffi- 

 cient pains were not taken at the time either to identify it with, or separate it from, the 

 spinetailed swallow of China, Nepal, or other parts of Asia. With regard to Reguloi- 

 des superciliosus it is much to be regretted that Mr. Yarrell does not mention the 

 country of the specimen from which his elegant figure was taken. I cannot conceive 

 how this feeble-winged Asiatic species could have crossed Asia, Europe and the Ger- 

 man Ocean, and I think a doubt may fairly be entertained whether Mr. Hancock's 

 solitary example is really distinct from our ordinary goldcrest, of which it may possibly 

 be a variety or an immature example. — Edward Newman. 



The Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) in Norfolk. — On the 1st of July an immature 



VOL. XXI. D 



