i8 
NATURE NOTES. 
this prevent a stock of young birds being produced, but it is exceedingly exhaust- 
ing to the old bird. I should remind your readers that plovers’ eggs are a pure 
luxury, and nothing else. Why should we not in England limit the sale of the 
the eggs to April 15 (as I believe is done in Scotland;, after which date no eggs, 
English or foreign, should be sold ? I hear numerous complaints of the increasing 
scarcity of these birds, and no wonder. 
Y. 
An Offer. — Will any of your readers offer a comfortable home to a pair of 
ringdoves, hatched last summer ; fine birds, tame. The owner will be glad to 
give them to any one who keeps an aviary, or who will not keep the birds confined 
in a small cage. 
4, Eldon Road., Hampstead. E. S. N. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
A Bird Legend.— Your readers may be interested in the following legend 
about the Indian cuckoo (Cuculus microptems), given in a letter from India to a 
little boy : “ There is such a strange bird here, which always cries ‘ bo-kot-ta-ko,’ 
all day long. There is a story about this bird. Once there was a man who killed 
a young woman, and he was so full of remorse when he saw her dying, that he 
threw himself on his knees beside her body, and said, ‘ bo-kot-ta-ko,’ which 
means, ‘say one word.’ But she died, and the king of the birds punished him, 
by making him into a bird who says nothing else all day, and is never answered.” 
St. Leonards. M. J. Graham. 
Swallows. — On the evening of October 6, six swallows were found inside 
a bedroom window. They were evidently intending to rest for the night, the rain 
having scarcely ceased all day. A housemaid living in a semi-detached house in 
Putney went into her bedroom on the top floor, when it was just dusk, to close 
her window. She had a lighted candle in her hand, and on entering the room 
was startled to see two black-looking objects, one in the centre of the window^ the 
other quite in the corner of the window — on the same line. She put the lighted 
candle near them, and discovered three swallows nestled close together in the 
centre, lying on the stiff frill of the white muslin short blind. They were resting 
on the tape and inner part of the frill between them and the glass (the lower 
sash), their tails hanging down against the muslin. In the right hand coiner were 
three more swallows, quite huddled together between the two sashes. It was 
difficult to get these three out without huiting them ; it seemed cruel to disturb 
these two happy families, but the window had to be closed for the night. The 
six birds were taken out quite safely, one by one, and flew away unhurt, out of 
the window, for other quarters. Numbers of swallows had been flying about the 
road and all round the house that same evening, and no doubt many more would 
have come in for shelter. That night was very rough — but not nearly so bad as 
the following night, Wednesday, October 7. When the candle was put near the 
birds they did not flutter or seem alarmed. Probably they were weather-wi.se, and 
intended to remain two or three days longer in this country until the storms had 
somew hat subsided. 
Putney. E. T. 
Swallows in Noveinbsr. — I saw four swallows in the neighbourhood of 
Southsea on November 4 of this year, and a friend saw six or seven circling 
around a church steeple in Southsea itself on the 8th of the same month. 
Southsea. J. E. II. Kei.so. 
Considerable interest attaches to the dates of the last appearance of swallows 
and other migratory birds in dilferent districts. Thus the last date on which the 
redstart was observed here (the Nidd X'alley) was .August 23, and that of the 
