BIRDS the writer was shown in the hands of a local bird stufFer a box full of kingfishers (more than twenty in number) mounted for the decora- tion of ladies' hats. Fortunately however the demand had fallen off, and the specimens were no longer required by the hat maker. But we must not credit the destruction of kingfishers for such a purpose as the sole cause of their rarity. Spring floods such as the dis- astrous floods of 1887, when all the low-lying meadows were under water, destroyed the nests of the kingfisher wholesale, and from that date there was a very obvious falling off in its numbers. The bird still is found in some numbers on the rivers and brooks in the county. [Bee-Eater. Merops apiaster, Linn. I can record the appearance of one which was shot not far from the boundary of the county, at Redhill near Alcester, on May 29th, 1886. It proved on dissection to be a female containing five or six eggs, and as it was in the company of a second, would pro- bably have bred. Another, some years ago, was shot near Longdon.] 91. Hoopoe. Upupa epops, Linn. The hoopoe is mentioned by Hastings as of infrequent occurrence in Worcestershire. A specimen preserved in the Worcester Museum was killed at the Yew Tree, Ombersley, and recorded in the Zoologist in 1862 by Mr. A. Edwards, who also referred to one which occurred about twenty years previously near the Trench Woods, about seven miles from Worcester. He also secured a third which was shot about the same distance from the city between that time and 1862, the date of his communication. A hoopoe was shot by the late Mr. W. H. Ashwin at Bretforton on the 4th of May, 1875. The latest in- stance of the appearance of the hoopoe in the county, of which I have any knowledge, is of one shot near Shipston-on-Stour, but I am in ignorance of the precise date. 92. Cuckoo. Cuculus canorus, Linn. This well-known summer visitor is fairly common all over the county. For many years past I have had a very decided opinion that the female cuckoo conveys her eggs into the nests of other birds by means of her beak, and I arrived at that conclusion from having found both eggs and young in nests so placed that it would have been impossible for her to have laid her eggs there in the manner of other birds. Once I saw a young cuckoo in the nest of a wren, which was overhead in the thatch in the inside of a cattle shed. The young bird had its head out at the hole of the domed nest, and was being fed by the wrens. It would have been impossible for the female cuckoo to have laid the egg in that nest. The above particulars were given by me to Mr. Gould at the time he was engaged with his great work on British birds. On another occasion I found a cuckoo's egg in the nest of a redbreast in some ivy against a wall, and the nest was so close to the wall that the latter really formed one side of the nest. More- over, the nest was closely overhung by large leathery ivy leaves, and a bird of the size of a cuckoo could not possibly have sat upon it. The nest of the reed-warbler is always sus- pended between three or four upright stems, generally those of reeds, and nests so placed are often found to contain the egg or young of the cuckoo, and it may be safely asserted that a cuckoo could not lay an egg in such a nest. I have great reason for suspecting that I have more than once disturbed a female cuckoo when laying her egg. It is not un- usual in the breeding season to see a silent cuckoo rise from some bare place, such as an unfrequented road, and alight again after a short flight, as if reluctant to leave the spot. After two or three such short flights, a longer one will bring the bird back to the place where it was first seen — doubtless if, as is now generally thought, the cuckoo takes her egg in her beak, it would be laid on some spot from which it could easily and safely be taken up, and that would not be amongst herbage of any kind, not even the grass of a pasture, but on some bare place. Cuckoos flitting before one in the way I have men- tioned are not unusual, and are always single and always silent. 93. White or Barn Owl. Strix flammea^ Linn. It is with the greatest regret that I am obliged to record the very great decrease in the number of this handsome, interesting and useful bird in our county, but year by year it becomes less frequent, and the time is not far distant when it will be spoken of as formerly known in Worcestershire. A very remark- able variety was killed at the Limekiln Farm, Martley, Worcester, early in the month of June, 1897, which came into the hands of the writer shortly after that date. The whole of the under surface is of a deep yellowish salmon colour. Around the eyes there is a considerable extent of bright chestnut, and the upper parts of the body are darker in colour than is usually seen in the ordinary specimens of the barn-owl. In size it rather exceeds the usual individuals. This variety t57
