Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/511

Rh of interest. I first observed it on a hill-side named Sunnybank, which rises from the back of mypiouse, on June 4th, 1890, when I found a nest containing four eggs, at the same time identifying the sitting bird as a Cirl Bunting. A few days afterwards I heard two male birds of the same species in song near the site of the nest. One of these I shot, and it is now in my collection. Since that date it has become resident on the abovenamed bank, where it nests yearly, and where I hear its song almost daily during the summer. Since that year it has also been gradually spreading over the county, and nearly every summer its song is to be heard in some fresh locality. It seems partial to hill-sides furnished with gorse and isolated elm and oak trees. The following are some of the places where it occurs, and probably nests: High Grove, Tallylyn, Sennybridge, and Glanusk. I have obtained several specimens for myself and friends; a pair in my collection are in full adult plumage, and a bird which T obtained for the Hereford Museum is an immature male with breast colour bands not well marked. Of four Cirl Buntings' nests I have found here two were in gorse bushes, one on a bank among coarse herbage, and one in a bramble. The eggs in my collection, which I took here from three nests, are all of the same type, and have a greenish white ground, boldly marked with blackish streaks and spots. They are distinct, and could not well be mistaken for eggs of any other of our birds. The Cirl Bunting is one of our most persisteut songsters; its monotonous metallic trill is to be heard from about the first week in April to the middle of August. When I first heard it the trill seemed to me rather like that of the Lesser Whitethroat; I am of the opinion now, however, that the song of the latter is more musical and softer. Singing as it does generally near the top of a tree and often out of sight, it is inuch more easily recognized by the ear than the eye.— (Woodlands, Brecon).

Spotted Crake in Furness.—The Spotted Crake (Porzana maruetta) is perhaps sufficiently rare in that portion of Lakeland known as Furness to make the occurrence of a couple in the Rusland Valley worthy of record in 'The Zoologist.' I have searched for this species for a dozen years or more here, where Water Rails may frequently be seen, in the confident expectation of finding the rarer bird sooner or later. On Sept. 8th I saw two, which were shot. They proved on dissection to be male and female, and from the orange-red on the bills are no doubt old birds (cf. Stevenson, 'Birds of Norfolk,' vol. ii. p. 395). Both birds, flushed separately from aquatic herbage, took short flights, and were shot as they were just dropping into thick cover. The food consisted of several small seeds and finely divided vegetable matter. On the wing they do not resemble Water Bails, but are much more like tiny Moorhens, and they fly rather fast. Since writing the above, another Spotted Crake has been shot, on Oct, 10th, in exactly the same place. It