62 
Harvey. More recently Mr. Davy, a bird-dealer in Camden 
Town, who generally has a catcher at Yarmouth, had sent him 
from that place six, two of which are alive in my brother’s 
possession, and are recorded in the “ Zoologist,” p. 2682. They 
were taken on the 5th of May, 1871, and the name of the man who 
took them was Seale. They may have escaj>ed from confinement, 
but I think it very probable that they were really wild birds. 
J. H. Gurney, jun. 
Calamodus Aquaticus, Latham. — I cannot help thinking that 
the aquatic warbler (Calamodus uquaiicus) often occurs in this 
country. I recently detected one in a provincial museum, which, 
like the only other two specimens on record, had been passed over 
as a sedge warbler. There cannot be a doubt that the figure in 
Hunt s Biitish Birds, was taken from one, in all probability 
obtained in Norfolk, but there is no letterpress to accompany it. 
It is only necessary to remember that in the aquatic warbler, 
there is a narrow stripe of yellowish white down the middle of the 
crown of the head, the unfailing mark of distinction between this 
species and its congener, as may be seen in a specimen in the 
Norwich Museum, which I shot in Algeria, where I found both 
of them freely associating. J. H. Gurney, jun. 
Mortality amongst Swallows and Martins. — In the first 
number of our “ Transactions,” under the above title, will be found 
a record of the mortality which occurred in 1869, amongst the 
swallow tribe, from the extremely low temperature experienced in 
that year, between the 24th and 29th of May. Hundreds of these 
birds jierished at that time, throughout the county, from the com- 
bined effects of cold and hunger, the absence of sun by day 
depriving them of insect food, and the cold of the nights and 
early mornings having a fatal influence in their Starved condition. 
The same consequences, though not to the same extent, have 
resulted from the unseasonable weather of the last few weeks, 
[Read July, 1871], the prevalence, even up to the end of June, of 
north and north-east winds having had an unhealthy influence 
upon the feathered tribes, as well as on ourselves. 
Mr. Ringer, of West Harling, in whoso exposed ncighbouihood, 
in 1869, the swallows and martins sufl'ci'cd most severely, ini'orms 
