WHEATEAB 25 



cress stream, in which place it had bred for several suc- 

 cessive years : when I saw it no eggs had been deposited." 

 In the Birds of East Kent, 1889, by Mr. G. Dowker, who 

 says it is " common in his district," the following localities 

 are given : Nonington, Mr. W. Oxenden Hammond ; 

 Dover, Mr. C. Gordon ; Elmstone, Kev. W. B. Delmar ; 

 Walmer, Rev. B. Austen ; Dover, Mr. G. Gray ; Folke- 

 stone, H. Ullyett ; Dover, Plomley collection. The Eev. 

 C. H. Fielding includes it among the Birds of the Mailing 

 Valley. Mr. W. Prentis, in the Birds of Bainham, 1894, 

 says: "The AVheatear, coming in March, is the first 

 spring arrival. I have noticed some few in summer-time 

 flitting along our marsh walls, probably breeding in 

 between the blocks of stone used for supporting the 

 embankment." In the Zoologist, 1896, we cull from the 

 ornithological notes from Romney Marsh, written by 

 Captain Boyd Alexander, the following : " The presence 

 here of the Wheatear can hardly escape the notice of the 

 most unobservant. The curious sites chosen by these 

 birds for their nests — and especially is this the case down 

 here — is no safeguard against intrusion, but rather, if 

 anything, the exact opposite, for it seems to linger in the 

 memory of the bird's-nesting boy, with the result that 

 every tin can, kettle and empty shell is zealously turned 

 over and examined, when the Wheatear's treasure is very 

 often found. Though the first nest be taken, it is not 

 uncommon to find the same site occupied again for the 

 second lay. I came across a nest on the ' Lydd Beach' 

 this summer (1896) under a turned-over pig-trough. 

 The hole by which the bird gained access to its nest was 

 no larger than that of a mouse. Another was found in 

 an empty four-pounder shell — a good example, truly, of 

 ' peace and war.' The crevices in the gabion casemates 



