OTES 



EARLY NESTING OF LESSER REDPOLL 

 AND GOLDFINCH. 



Amplifying Mr. Riviere's note {supra, j). 218) on the early 

 breeding of the Lesser Redpoll in East Anglia. I might say 

 that my own experience endorses Mr. Jourdain's opinion as 

 expressed in his footnote. 



I Avas anxious to obtain a iew clutches of eggs for my 

 collection in 1912, and accoidingly kept a sharp look out 

 for Redpolls' nests when collecting in the Mest of Suffolk 

 during the early part of May. On referring to my notes I 

 find that on May 7th I saw two nests containing young 

 birds, and one with five fresh eggs. 



I am not aware that it has been noticed that the interior 

 of the mouth, in the Lesser Redpoll nestling, is bright red 

 in colour, and contains little " palatal flesh-teeth " like 

 those of the Bearded Tit (c/. Vol. II., p. 58). 



An unusually early nesting-date for the Goldfinch {Carduelis 

 c. hritannica) also came under my notice in the same locality. 

 Mr. Montagu and I saw a nest containing three eggs on 

 April 13th, 1912. Clifford Borrer. 



EASTERN SKY-LARK IN IRELAND. 



Dr. E. Hartert has most kindly examined for me some 

 Sky-Larks ol)tained from Irish Light stations, and has 

 detected amongst them a specimen of Alavda arvensis cinerea. 

 This bird A\'as killed striking at the Old Head of Kinsale 

 Lighthouse, co. Cork, on October 7th, 1910. The only other 

 British record of the Eastern Sky-Lark is the specimen 

 obtained at the Flannan Islands Lighthouse on FebruarA- 24th, 

 1906 (W. Eagle Clarke, Aim. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1906, p. 139), 

 which, by the way, is not indexed in that volume. 



Richard M. Barrington. 



NUMBERS OF YOUNG IN BROODS OF SWALLOWS 

 AND HOUSE-MARTINS M 1912. 



Although I have not been marking many Swallows {CheUdon 

 r. rustica) during the past summer, perhaps it may be of 

 intei'est to state the number in each brood as I have done 

 in previous years (c/. Vol. IV., p. 249, and Vol. V., p. 135). 



In June seven nests were visited of Mhich four contained 

 five young, one four, one three and the seventh two only. 



