Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/533

Rh in Staffordshire and other parts of England, but I have not previously met with it in Derbyshire.

A Blackbird and a Thrush were sitting within a few feet of one another on the horizontal beams which supported the roof of a barn near Ashburne on May 29th. In both nests the eggs were pale blue, either entirely without spots, or with only a few faint rusty markings. The Thrush's eggs, which were hard-sat, had much more gloss than the Blackbird's, but in colour the two clutches were almost exactly alike. A pair of Great Crested Grebes, which had apparently bred, were killed at the end of May near Chellaston, and early in the year one of a pair was unfortunately killed at Kedleston, and probably prevented from breeding there.

Two nests of the Tufted Duck at Osmaston, examined on June 12th, contained sixteen and eighteen eggs respectively; but there were three couple of Ducks about the place, and only two nests at this time, though another was made subsequently.

A Willow-Wren was sitting on four eggs in the middle of a strawberry-bed at Clifton on July 3rd, a somewhat unusual position for the nest. A Common Tern was noticed hovering over the Dove at Hanging Bridge on Aug. 24th. On Sept. 15th a Wood-Pigeon's nest with two eggs was fouud at Clifton, but, late as this nest was, it was not the last record for the season, for a Goldfinch's nest at Marchington contained three young, almost ready to fly, on Oct. 2nd (W.T. Mynors).

This year Mr. W. Storrs Fox informs me that a Dunlin's nest with four eggs was found on the Redmires Moors, and one of the old birds shot for identification. Although the Dunlin has long been supposed to breed in this district, this is the first time that eggs have been actually taken. A cream-coloured variety of the Jackdaw and a Magpie, in which the black plumage was replaced by light brown, were recorded from the Ashburne district.

The great snowstorms of December drove many Red Grouse from the North Derbyshire moors in a southerly direction. In the Dove Valley packs were reported from Kirk Ireton (J.B.E. Blackwall), and a single bird was flushed near Cubley. Zool. 4th ser. vol. VI., December, 1902.