208 
MYCOLOGICAL NOTES. 
I had heard it. ... I very soon saw the bird about ten yards 
away, perched on a twig. The feature which most attracted my 
attention was the long and very flexible olive throat, which was moved 
about a great deal, thrust forward and again drawn back so as to fold 
like a double chin. I have no doubt that the ventriloquistic power is 
connected with this long neck, but when the bird again began to 
“reel” he turned his tail on me, so that I could not so well see the 
throat at work. As far as I could see, however, there was no very 
marked vibration of any part of the body in making the noise, to 
which I then listened for some minutes, but failed to hear a longer 
effort than one which lasted 40 seconds by my watch. ... It 
moved with a peculiar half-flying, half-creeping, or climbing motion— 
e.g., it mn down a sapling, or looked as if it did so, using its broad tail 
freely to balance itself. . . . My field-glass enabled me to see the 
bird almost as well as if it had been in my hands.” May 27.—The 
Wood Wren {Phylloscopus sibilatrix) is a rare bird in this part of the 
county: I only once observed it this season, in the tops of some tall 
oak trees in a wood just inside Warwickshire. The Nightjar {Gapri- 
inulgus europceus) is far from common ; a female bird was shot on the 
Northamptonshire side (if not in that county) on the 19th. Later on 
in the year I knew of a nesting spot in South Oxfordshire, where they 
are far more common. June 9th.—A Cuckow finished with “ cuck-cuck- 
cuck-coo,” after a spell of his typical song. 
“ In June he changes his tune.” 
A pair of Red-backed Shrikes {Lanins collurio), which reared their 
young a few fields below this house, escaped observation until July 
8th, after which date I watched them closely, and obtained several 
Bumble Bees, and two large beetles {Geotrupes vernalis and another) 
which they had impaled upon thorns. I think the young flew about 
the beginning of the fourth week ; I saw them on the morning of the 
24th, being attracted by their strange cries. I think that it has been a 
good year for summer birds, and the warblers at all events are 
plentiful enough just now, and frequent the gardens in numbers to 
feed on the remains of the currants. But the Willow Wren has begun 
his autumn song, and the Swallows and Martins congregate in the 
tops of trees, and they will soon all be leaving us. 
Great Bourtou, Oxon, 8th August, 1883. 
MYCOLOGICAL NOTES. 
In the “Midland Naturalist” for 1882, p. 185, I recorded for the 
first time the occurrence of the rare or unnoticed species Agaricus 
udus, in Warwickshire, at Sutton Park. On a recent visit to the 
Lickey Hills, August 1st, I had the pleasure of finding it again in a 
similar locality, amongst Sphagnum, in a little marshy spot where 
Drosera formerly grew. This, of course, is in Worcestershire. It 
was accompanied here by the \&riety polytrichi (Fries, “Hym. Eur.,” 
