Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/52

30 position of the nest might be recorded. The Merlin, in this country, is usually found nesting on the ground or in rocks, and what renders the present case of greater interest is the fact that the ground all round the tree was just of such a character as is usually chosen by the Merliu for nesting, showing that the tree could not have been fixed on for want of another suitable place. The nest occupied appeared to be a deserted one of Corvus corone or C. cornix. Nests of Merlins in trees are not uncommon in Lapland.

—In 'The Zoologist' for December last (p. 513), Mr. Cordeaux, writing on the " Spring Migration of Birds on the East Coast," says, " My impression is that the males of this species (Tree Pipit), also the male Willow Wrens, precede the females by some days; we do not hear their notes, however, before their mates arrive." From my inability to discriminate the males from the females of the above species, except by their song, I am unable to say whether the males do arrive before the females. It is, however, certain that the Willow Wrens did not give any indication of their presence by their song until the 19th April, although the female birds must have arrived a few days earlier, as we received no increase of numbers after the 16th. I first heard the Tree Pipit on the 22nd April, but did not hear it again for at least a week, though the pair were to be seen frequently in the locality, the weather being still excessively cold. What particularly struck me, as bearing on the point at issue, was the absence of the song of the Yellow Wood Wren in all the more open and hilly woods during the whole of May, whilst they were in full song in the sheltered and low-lying districts on the 20th. This was noticeable both in Airedale and Wharfedale. The unusually cold spring of 1877 might, to some extent, if not mainly, account for the reticence of our summer migrants after their arrival.— (Wilsden).

 

November 15, 1877.— Dr. F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair.

Messrs. W. Joshua (of Cirencester), W. S. Lawson, B.A. (of St. Peter's College, Cambridge), and the Rev. M. A. Mathew (Vicar of Bishop's Lydeard, Somerset), were ballotted for and elected Fellows of the Society.

Mr. J. Jenner Weir exhibited a case of butterflies captured on the Alps, at a height of between 8000 and 9000 feet. These were interesting from the fact that they presented considerable similarity to, without being 