ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 49 



then return to the shore and scamper back to the " bents," having 

 evidently enjoyed its bath. Though very familiar with the locality, 

 I have not previously observed this vole acting in this somewhat 

 strange manner. BRUCE CAMPBELL, Edinburgh. 



Curious variety of the Jackdaw at the Dean, Edinburgh. 



During the late autumn and early winter I have several times seen 

 an abnormally coloured Jackdaw (Corvus monednla) on the refuse- 

 heap to the west of the Dean House. It is of a uniform light 

 chocolate colour, and I suspect the same bird that I had seen 

 before the moult in a partly chocolate-coloured plumage. WILLIAM 

 SERLE, Edinburgh. 



Chiffehaff in Clyde. In Mr. John Paterson's note under this 

 heading in your issue of October last, he states : " The most 

 interesting occurrence of all is perhaps that of a pair of males calling 

 in Cleghorn woods, near Lanark, on the i6th of June this year, the 

 first time I have heard it anywhere in Lanarkshire." It may 

 perhaps be of interest to record that in these same woods, beside 

 the Mouse River, I found a nest of the Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus 

 rufus] on 4th June 1890. The nest was placed between the lower 

 branches of a young spruce fir, about 18 inches from the 

 ground, with rank grass growing around, and contained five eggs. 

 I have found the nest in an exactly similar situation here in the 

 south of England, although is it not the most usual one. I may add 

 that on the same date and in the same locality I found a nest of 

 the Garden Warbler with five eggs, in a low, straggling blackthorn.- 

 ROBERT H. READ, London. 



Variety of the Eggs of the Sedge Warbler. - -The Sedge 

 Warbler (Acrocephahis phragmitis] is becoming very numerous as a 

 breeding species in Kincardineshire, being generally dispersed with 

 a sprinkling of Whitethroats on all our burn sides where whins and 

 broom are growing. On a stretch of a little over half a mile of the 

 Bervie Water I saw nine Sedge Warblers' nests, in one of which, on 

 nth June 1900, Mr. James Young got a clutch of six eggs of 

 a warm salmon-pink colour ; and another one contained three eggs, 

 one of which was very small, measuring 0.42 x 0.35, but quite 

 normal in coloration. JOHN MILNE, Auchinblae. 



The Little Stint on the Solway Firth. The Little Stint is one 

 of those species which visit the Solway Firth every autumn, but 

 generally in very small numbers, and in immature dress. A few 

 odd birds are to be found along the shore from Annan to Gretna, 

 and again from Maryport to Rockliffe Marsh ; but the surest place 

 in which to find Tringa minuta is a flat of sand on the estuary of 

 the Wampool and Waver. The bird may be found at any time 

 between August and January, but chiefly in September. Our 

 gardener, William Nicol, jun., shot a Little Stint close to our house 



37 E 



