bird of this species having been seen at Bonchurch: I have since ascertained that the new-comer is a male, too, having heard its song.

JUNE, 1866.

Lesser Blackbacked Gull, &c.-In the May notes I remarked that no gull but the herring gull breeds at the Culver Cliff, and other writers have said the same; but I find, by a recent visit to the spot, one pair of [lesser] blackbacked gulls still nesting there, and I moreover observe that there are at least double the number of herring gulls that I and others had supposed; but I might again have come away with a wrong impression had I not chanced to shoot a meadow pipit near the edge of the cliff. No sooner had I fired than herring gulls rose in all directions, open-mouthed and excited, screeching at me in most discordant notes, which may be likened to laughter, but when heard so near, and from so many throats at once, has anything but an agreeable sound. I was soon surrounded by about forty of them, some, in darting to and fro, venturing within thirty yards of me, but the two lesser blackbacked gulls, though occasionally mingling with the rest, generally keeping more aloof. No kittiwakes were seen. This lofty and inaccessible cliff is a favourite haunt of the meadow pipit during the breeding season: the specimen procured is a female, and both quills and tail-feathers are so worn and abraded that there is no making out which are the longest. On dissection it was found, as anticipated from the ragged state of the plumage, to be a female, the ovary filled with a cluster of eggs, mostly very minute, the largest not much exceeding a pin's head in size. In the gizzard was found nothing but beetles : thus we have in the pipit another benefactor.

[These are the beetles from that most injurious grub, the wireworm: they were of three species, Agriotes Sputator, A. obscurus and A. lineatus.-E. Newman.]

Martin. Though the martin arrived early in May, it did not commence building till the latter end of the month, the weather being unseasonably cold: thermometer 50° on the 26th, at 9 A. M. On inspecting the nests, on the 4th of June, I found three in different stages of advancement; one an old nest undergoing repair; the second, in its half-finished state, looking like a gorget reversed; the third but recently commenced. 9th. There are now six nests on the same house, which I can only account for by ascribing to a social habit, there being a loftier and apparently more suitable building close to it; besides, the

one selected has been recently white-washed all over, the walls of one nest coming in for a share. 13th. Little progress has been made, the weather being still unsettled: one nest has been thrown down. 16th. The martins are rebuilding on the foundation of the injured nest, to which about an inch and a half has been added, and on which they were found crouching and sheltering themselves from the gale in the evening, as if about to roost. Another pair was observed snugly ensconced in a half-finished nest. The foundation of one nest being about four inches from the eaves, I was at a loss to conjecture how it could be made sufficiently roomy, but now find that the walls are being carried out laterally, giving it an odd one-sided look. 17th. The work progressing very slowly, owing to the high wind. 18th. Continued gale and heavy rain throughout the day. 19th. Find that about a third of the walls of the shallow nest has been blown or washed down, and the poor birds are flying to and fro in a wild state of excitement, occasionally settling to examine the breach. 20th. The recently damaged nest has had part of the gap built up; to another nest half an inch or so has been added, though the one adjoining has not been touched, but the nest that is being rebuilt has had a part of the inclined wall raised an inch or more, making it even. The ousted martins have taken repossession of their nest to-day, but being molested by sparrows, it is doubtful whether they will be allowed to finish it. The weather mild and calm at last: thermometer 60° at 9 A. M. The martins are as busy as bees, and almost as numerous: I saw dozens to-day collecting mud from a public road recently watered: the chalky soil was doubtless rendered more tenacious by being trodden under foot and ground down by carriage-wheels. 21st. Thermometer 68° at 1 P.M. The martins have been heard at work throughout the day: the damaged nest has received some further repairs, and most of the others additions, except the one referred to yesterday, which is apparently forsaken. The layers are often inclined and wedge-shaped, so that the walls may be one day sloped, another day even: these layers seldom much exceed an inch in thickness at the broad part; not that this order is invariably observed, as two or more layers are sometimes sloped the same way why this seemingly awkward mode of building is adopted it is hard to say, but since it admits more sun and wind it dries more quickly. Only one out of the six nests has even the shell completed as yet. A nest having been commenced to-day, I may now ascertain the time taken in building under more favourable circumstances. 22nd. The patch of mud, that yesterday was not readily discernible,

has had a slight lateral extension, and is now about an inch and a half in width by half an inch in depth. Like other late nests it is but about four inches from the eaves. The rebuilt nest is now finished externally, the shell having been completed in nine days, or, allowing two days on account of the old foundation, eleven days; but it is fully a third less in size than usual, and has yet to be lined. A third nest, full-sized, has taken about twenty days in building. 23rd. The new nest is now about two inches wide and an inch deep; both birds have been hard at work, one occasionally turning off the other. A nest was commenced yesterday in front of the house, by a small patch of clay being placed close to another, to which it has now been joined, though the foundation is on a much higher level, so that the nest will be at least a third less in height. 25th. Little work done yesterday, which I think was partly owing to the roads not being watered and the intense heat: thermometer 73° at 1 P. M. I have remarked that after a shower double the work is done. Though rather more progress has been made today, but one nest has received any considerable addition, and I observe that one nest has a hole at the bottom. The house sparrows are seemingly in undisputed possession of the old nest, which is quite open at the top. 26th. The nest commenced on the 21st has had some addition, but it dries so quickly under a scorching sun, with the thermometer at 80° in the shade, that it is impossible to say how much. To the new nest in front of the house, begun on the 22nd, a large piece has been added, and it has now a very peculiar appearance, looking like a broken saucer. The reason of its being attached to another nest is now made apparent to the least observant. Instinctive masterbuilders! they are saving both time and labour by building on to their neighbour's gables: reason and instinct, truly, are nearly allied. 27th. The last mentioned nest has had considerably more than an inch added since yesterday, but then it must be borne in mind that the walls are a third less in extent than usual. The birds go into the nest build, and, on bringing a large quantity of mud, deposit it in two or three different places, smoothing off the inner surface by turning round as on a pivot. 30th. The nest commenced on the 21st has been completed externally, or nearly so, in the ten days, but is very small, and still too open. The shell of the new nest in front of the house is also finished in the rough to-day, being the ninth day, and is now not unlike a pine-apple in shape, with its upper side flattened at the eaves, the lower side somewhat curved and tapering to the opening, which is at the apex of the cone, its base resting on the other nest, so that it has no

bottom of its own. It is difficult to say when a nest is finished, for some of them, though being lined, are quite open at the top, but may be built up, and the opening rounded off, while the eggs are incubated. They have been observed taking sea-weed to line their nests, and they collect mud from off the shore, where a rivulet falls into the sea. Though the hole in the rebuilt nest has been stopped some of the upper part has fallen away, for want of adhesiveness, I believe. There are now eight nests, but two only are of full size and well rounded. I believe, as I have already remarked (Zool. 9840), that Macgillivray was mistaken in thinking that the martin ever completes its nest, even under the most favourable circumstances, in six days, and I have shown that these hastily built or rebuilt nests are not only of smaller size, but imperfect in shape and finish, yet take nine days or more in the construction. Though saying that the construction of the nest occupies from six to ten days, he does not inform us how he arrived at this conclusion, but I think the following passage from a correspondent's communication explains it:-"I have seen them inhabited in the course of six or eight days, particularly when the former ones have been washed down." That the martin usually takes about double the time in building that Macgillivray has here stated there can be little doubt, though much depends on the weather. From twelve to fourteen days I believe to be about the average time for a full-sized nest.

Cuckoo. A neighbour's gardener, on looking into a robin's nest on the 20th of June, was surprised to find in it a young cuckoo of the size of a thrush, which after being handled (like the young of many other species) would not remain in the nest. An endeavour is being made to bring it up by the hand, and it feeds readily enough; indeed it has a constant craving for food, as might be expected, seeing that its foster parents must be for ever feeding it. The nest was in an abrupt ivycovered bank, where it would have puzzled any large bird but the cuckoo to have laid an egg, it being quite embedded in the ivy, where there would be no room for a cuckoo, unless seated on the edge of the nest with tail erect, which probably is the position it assumes, though its laying in the nest of the robin must be of rare occurrence.

Ventnor, Isle of Wight,

July 6, 1866.

HENRY HADFIELD.

SECOND SERIES-VOL. I.

2 Y

Honey Buzzard in Suffolk.-A fine female specimen of the honey buzzard (Falco apivorus) was shot on the 18th of June, at Mutford, near Lowestoft. Its plumage was good and very prettily mottled on the breast. The ovary contained a cluster of eggs in a forward state of development, varying in size up to as large as the thrush's. Its stomach was filled with the remains of the spotted flycatcher's and thrush's eggs, which I was enabled to identify by discovering fragments of the eggshells intermixed with the contents.-T. E. Gunn; 3 West Poltergate, Norwich.

Tawny Owl's Nest on the Ground.-The following are the particulars respecting a tawny owl's (Strix aluco) nest found on the ground, in North Wales, June 1, 1866 :— The nest was close to the edge of a small wood of pines and beeches at Hafod-y-llyn, Merionethshire, within a stone's throw of the Festiniog Railway on one side, and a public road on the other. It was merely a hollow scraped in the dead beech-leaves on the ground, and sheltered on one side by the steepness of the hill, and on two others by part of an old moss-covered stump, some two feet high. The old bird did not fly off till I was close upon it, and then, by no means scared by the sunlight, made its way at once to a safe distance. The nest contained three eggs, of a pure and glossy white, and of the following measurements:

i. Length 1 inch 11 lines, breadth 1 inch 6 lines.

There were no very old or hollow trees in the neighbourhood, which may perhaps account for the nest being on the ground.-Charles B. Wharton; Willesden, Middlesex, June 23, 1866.

Occurrence of the Bee-eater in Wiltshire.-A very fine male specimen of the beeeater was shot, in the afternoon of the 4th of May, in the parish of Bishopstowe, in this county. The bird was observed in an orchard amusing himself the whole day in hawking for insects, and he is reported to have been in the habit of returning to a certain tree, which he had selected as his station, and of knocking his bill smartly against the branch, previously to swallowing the insect he had captured. A mason named Turner, in the employment of Mr. Temple, of Bishopstowe, watched the bird from the top of a cottage where he was repairing the tiles, and being attracted by the beauty of the plumage, sent for a gun, and shot it from the spot where he was working. I am informed that the bird was quite alone.—Alfred Charles Smith; Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, June 4, 1866.

Food of the Wood Pigeon.-In reply to your request (S. S. 310), I beg to say that I believe the whortleberry to be the chief food of the wood pigeon at this season (see Zool. 9723), and clover. Besides, ivy-berries and beech-mast have to be added to the winter "bill of fare." I have the authority of an experienced poulterer, through whose hands many dozens pass during the year, in corroboration of my own observations: he says that much charlock-seed is found in their crops, which alone is more than enough to compensate the farmer for the grain consumed.-Henry Hadfield ; Ventnor, Isle of Wight, June 6, 1866.

The Common Crane in India.-The common crane of Europe visits India in numerous flocks during the cold weather. In the Deccan and Central India it is generally seen in small flocks of four, six or eight, to twenty, now and then in much larger numbers, especially in the Punjaub and the North-Western Provinces. It