Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/463

Rh end of the previous November. A Little Auk was also received at the same time, taken in an emaciated state on the moors outside Sheffield, and now in the Sheffield Museum. Mr. Storrs Fox obtained a Rook (about the beginning of February) "whose upper mandible was very much elongated, being about 1¼ to 1½ in. longer than the lower one. This additional part was narrow and curved downwards after the manner of a Chough's beak. The bird was put into an aviary, but was killed by a Rat the same night." The bones of the skull proved to be normal in size and shape, the long tip being composed of horny covering alone. The Chiffchaff was singing in the Ashburne district by March 30th, and Sand-Martins were noticed on April 6th. Owing to the mild weather Lapwings began to lay earlier than usual, and eggs were found before the end of March. Long-tailed Tits were exceedingly numerous in the spring of 1899, and more nests were found than in any year I can remember. The Grasshopper-Warbler was absent from its usual breeding haunts; generally six or seven pairs are to be found within a radius of three or four miles, but in 1899 and 1900 none of the old breeding places were tenanted. A Carrion-Crow's nest, found on April 15th, contained a single egg. The tree showed no signs of having been previously climbed, and on the 20th a single young Crow occupied the nest. As the clutch of the previous year had only consisted of two eggs, perhaps they were the produce of an almost barren pair. Mr. H.G. Tomlinson noticed a Swift at Burton on May 4th, and on the following day Mr. Storrs Fox saw one at Ashford lake. The Swift is perhaps the most regular in its visits of any of the migrants, and often returns literally to the day.

Under date of April 17th, Mr. Storrs Fox writes that one of the keepers in his neighbourhood saw a Great Grey Shrike "about a fortnight ago." He had a shot at it, but it flew away. On May 10th a Dotterel was picked up under the telegraph-wires on the Nottingham road just outside the town of Derby (cf. 'Field,' May 20th, 1899). It was an adult in spring plumage, and, with the exception of those mentioned in 'The Zoologist' for 1894, is the only specimen recorded from the county during the last twenty years. Waterhens' nests are often built some distance from the ground, but on May 11th I came across one quite sixteen feet up a large chestnut on the shore of Calwich Abbey Pond. Another nest at Yeldersley contained thirteen eggs, but, though they were of much the same type, of course they may have been the produce of more than one bird. In addition to the breeding places of the Tufted Duck mentioned in 'The Zoologist,' 1899, p. 476, they have also established themselves at Bradley, a couple of miles to the east, and with a few years' protection would probably become numerous in the district. As it is, most of the young birds of the year are shot, and the increase is hardly perceptible. A Willow-Wren's nest at Shirley Vicarage was built in a small dead spruce, three feet from the ground.