344 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



Armeria vulgaris Willd., two rather uncommon forms of the Bent 

 and Fescue grasses (Agrostis alba var. A. stolo7iifera and Festiica 

 rubra, very glaucous), and myriad festoons of Vicia sylvatica all 

 over the steep cliffs. In the cultivated land, on the one hand, was 

 Papaver strigosum Boenn., while nearer Burnmouth, Linaria minor 

 and Ai7'a caryophyllea were growing freely on the railway banks of 

 the North British East Coast line. Marshy places, copses, &c., in 

 the neighbourhood of our centre of operations, yielded Pyrola mijior^ 

 Galium boreale, Epipadis latifolia, Euphorbia Lathyris, and Carex 

 disticha. From a distance was pointed out to us the known habitats 

 of Saxifraga HirculiLs, and of Corallo7'hiza ijinaia, and we very much 

 regretted we had not the time to go and search for them. 



Among a splendid collection of Alpines in cultivation at Chirn- 

 side, we, however, did see the rare Saxifrage, and such good things 

 (all gathered at British stations) as Gerajiium lancastriense^ Meum 

 athamanticum, Woodsia hyperborea, and Salix Sadleri Syme, a rooted 

 specimen of the Willow discovered by the late John Sadler in 1874, 

 and one of the three or four cuttings taken from the newly-found 

 plant by the lamented Curator of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edin- 

 burgh, ' at as wild a spot as exists in the kingdom, Corry Ceannmor, 

 Glen Callater, near Braemar.' 



Several of the plants we observed were new county and locality 

 records for Berwickshire. Of the Diplotaxis tenuifolia I sent a 

 specimen to Sir J. D. Hooker, C.B., Director of the Royal Gardens, 

 Kew, who in a note to me says — ' I shall attend to it for the next 

 edition of " The Student's Flora." ' 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 

 Little Auk (Mergulus alle) oceurring in July.— The occurrence 



of the Little Auk {Mergulus alle) in July is not altogether unprecedented, for I have 

 one with all the throat black, which flew on board a ship in the Wash, and was 

 captured, about July i6th, 1872. The same is recorded in the Zoologist iox 1872 

 (p. 3228). — J. H. GuRNEY, Jun., Northrepps, Norwich, August 4th, 1885. 



Curious place for a Cuckoo's egg.— Whilst searching, in company 

 with Mr. G. C. Dennis of York, and Mr. J. R. Dore of Huddersfield. for Hyria 

 aiiroraria and Acidalia straminata (both of which were taken), on Thorne Waste- 

 July 22nd, I found in a slight hollow, but with no nest, a Cuckoo's egg. On 

 picking it up, I at once remarked to Mr. Dennis, that it felt warm, but he thought 

 there was not more heat than the warm atmosphere would account for. On blow- 

 ing it the day, or possibly the second day after, I was very much astonished to 

 find it strongly incubated, and am still quite at a loss to know how it came to be 

 in such a position. As stated above, there was no nest, beyond the pressed down 

 withered grass in the slight hollow, and there was no other egg ; and being on the 

 open moor, it is most unlikely it had been placed there by any human agency. It 

 had no sign whatever, either on the outside or in its contents, of being* an old egg; 

 but on the contrary had every appearance of being at the time in process of 

 incubation. We saw no bird of any kind near it. Can anyone suggest an 



explanation? — G. T. PORRITT, Huddersfield, August 13th, 1885. 



Naturalist, 



