VOL. VI.] NOTES. 19 



from several quarters during the last year or two, I have not 

 met with it personally until quite recently. On April 25th, 

 1912, however, hearing that a pair had frequented an orchard 

 near Enfield for some months, I searched for a nest and 

 finally found one of the birds with two eggs in a hole in an apple 

 tree, about three feet from the ground. R. B. Lodge. 



The Little Owl seems to be getting very common about the 

 Worthing district, and we hear them every night. At one 

 farm at Angmering there were several of these birds for many 

 weeks frequenting the old elm trees. They were very noisy 

 both by day and night. They then became very silent for 

 some weeks, but on May 6th, 1912, the farmer (Mr. John 

 Tompkins) threshed one of his wheat-ricks, and in a hole in 

 the thatch the men found a Little Owl sitting on six eggs. 

 He brought the eggs to me. Two were hard-set, two slightly 

 incubated, and two quite new-laid, showing the bird had sat 

 on the first two laid. The nesting-hole was half way up the 

 roof, and appeared to have been made by the bird. 



These birds have a bad reputation. Are they really 

 injurious ? S. V. Clark. 



[In a recent paper Mr. T. A. Coward gives some details 

 as to the food of the Little Owl, from an examination of a 

 small number of pellets {Mem. mid Proc. Manchester Lit. 

 and Phil. Soc, Vol. LVI. (1912), No. 8). By far the larger 

 proportion of remains found in these pellets belonged to 

 small mammals, such as voles, rats, mice, and shrews. Beetle- 

 remains were also numerous, but there was little in the way 

 of bird-remains. In some of these pellets Mr. Coward found 

 a considerable amount of earth and sand, and suggests that 

 this came from digested earth-worms. Mr. Meade-Waldo has 

 noted that the Little Owl feeds upon earth-worms, and I may 

 remark that five specimens kindly sent to me by the Earl of 

 Gainsborough from Rutlandshire, in December, 1910, had 

 the stomachs crammed with the remains of beetles and earth- 

 worms. It would be of interest to have more details of the 

 food actually taken by this bird, which has now spread over 

 the best part of England and is said to be very destructive 

 to small birds and young game. — H.F.W.] 



HOBBY AND WRYNECK IN CHESHIRE— 

 CORRECTIONS. 

 Mr. F. Nicholson has shown us a letter from the late Edward 

 Milner, of Hartford Manor, Northwich, referring to two birds 

 which we mentioned in the Vertebrate Fauna of Cheshire, and 

 as the particulars we gave appear to be incorrect it is desirable 

 that the errors should be corrected. 



