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REPORTS. 



Kingfisher. — I saw a couple of these pretty little birds (or the same one 

 twice) skimming over the water at Bordeaux on August 4th. In the 

 bright sunshine then prevailing the birds' beautiful plumage showed up 

 to perfection. I again saw a Kingfisher at Bordeaux on the 19th 

 of August, probably one of the two I had seen on the earlier date. 



Stapling". — A very interesting instance of mimicry in the Starling has come 

 under my observation this autumn, the facts of which are given in the 

 following letter which appeared in Nature of October 26th, and in 

 Country Life of November 4th. 



A STARLING'S DECEPTION. 



"Three weeks ago, or to be quite correct, on September 22nd, I was 

 considerably startled and surprised, on going into the garden at 9.30 a.m., at 

 hearing what I thought to be a wryneck's call in a tree not many yards off. 

 I listened, and in a few minutes the cry came again clear and distinct as one 

 hears it in the Spring and early Summer. I was astonished, knowing it to be 

 a rare thing to hear the wryneck after the middle of July. I approached the 

 tree (in which two or three starlings were chattering and whistling) and tried 

 to get a sight of the supposed wryneck, but did not, although the call was 

 repeated several times. I put down my failure to the thickness of the foliage 

 and the ivy -grown trunk somewhere in the midst of which the bird was 

 doubtless in hiding. 



" Well, the next morning, and on several days following, the unseasonable, 

 but otherwise very pleasant note continued to be heard and always from the 

 same tree, and, apparently, in association with the starlings, for I noticed 

 that the cry invariably came after one of the starlings had whistled. The 

 whistle, in fact, seemed to be the signal for the wryneck to sing. 



" It struck me as being altogether very curious, and I determined to, if 

 possible, find out more about it. So one morning (September 27) I resolved 

 to investigate the matter more closely. Standing under the tree, and after a 

 little patient waiting, I got a starling well into view and watched him care- 

 fully. Wagging his head from side to side he chattered and cackled for all he 

 was worth, then came the whistle and immediately afterwards the wryneck's 

 note, in uttering which I quite distinctly saw the quick movement of the 

 beak. And so the mystery was solved. I waited, hoping to see a repetition 

 of the performance, but the bird, I fancy, caught sight of me and flew away. 

 On two or three of the following days I tried to catch him in the act again, 

 but was not successful. In the early days of October the cry was not heard, 

 at any rate by myself, but it fell on my ear once more and for the last time 

 on October 6, and from the same tree. 



"Starlings are great mimics, I believe, and I am wondering if this par^ 

 ticular bird has been reared in the immediate vicinity of a wryneck's nest and 

 so caught the note from the parent wryneck ? However this may be, I 

 thought the incident would interest your readers and perhaps elicit addi- 

 tional facts of a similar nature from some of them. J 



" I may add that in 1901, from August 19th to September 10th, a friend 

 and myself heard almost daily what we firmly believed to be a wryneck's cry. 

 It surprised us certainly, but, other than being very interested in hearing the 

 unseasonable note, we never properly investigated the matter. The question 

 now arises, were we and the neighbours deceived by a starling in 1901, as I 

 was so nearly deceived by one this autumn." 



Basil T. Rowswell. 



Les Blanches, St. Martin's, Guernsey, Oct. 18th. 



A writer in the London Globe of November 3rd, under the heading 

 of " Latest Science Jottings," commented upon this curious instance of bird 

 mimicry as follows : - 



