NOTES. 45 



interested on April 22nd to see the female bring a " snake 

 millipede " to the nest and feed the young with it. As far 

 as I could judge, however, fully 50 per cent, of the food taken 

 to the young consisted of earthworms. 



I noted the male and female eating the faeces of the young, 

 at almost every visit to the nest, and the accompanying 

 photograph shows the cock in the act of lifting the peces in his 



bill. C. KiNGSLEY SiDDALL. 



INCREASE OF LESSER WHITETHROATS IN 

 CREUDDYN, NORTH WALES. 



Inasmuch as there are no recorded instances of the Lesser 

 Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca) having been seen or heard on the 

 Great Orme's Head, I think it is worth recording that on 

 May 13th and 16th, 1910, I saw and heard an individual of 

 this species in some tall hawthorn bushes bordering on a 

 kitchen-garden in the small and narrow valley at the eastern 

 corner of the headland. Apparently the bird did not secure 

 a mate and settle down to nest there, as it was neither seen 

 nor heard afterwards. In the Hundred of Creuddyn (of 

 which the Great Orme forms a part) the bird has always been 

 considered local and uncommon, keeping mainly to the 

 neighbourhood of the mouth of the River Conway, and one 

 rarely sees or hears more than two in a long walk, but on 

 May 16th, 1910, Mr. T. A. Coward and I counted five indivi- 

 duals in a walk in and close to that southernmost part of the 

 Hundred — an unusual number, which gives colour to the 

 presumption that the species is increasing gradually around 

 the mouth of the river, for on the Conway side there are and 

 have been of late perceptible signs of an augmentation in 

 their numbers. R. W. Jones. 



TWO LESSER WHITETHROATS LAYING IN THE 



SAME NEST. 

 On May 22nd, 1910, I discovered on Hayling Island, Hamp- 

 shire, in some bramble bushes, a nest of the Lesser Wliite- 

 throat [Sylvia curruca), containing two eggs. On again visit- 

 ing the nest on May 27th a clutch of ten eggs was discovered. 

 The short time (five days) in which these eggs were laid 

 points to the fact that the clutch was the produce of two hens — 

 all the eggs were fresh. C. E. Cortis Stanford. 



UNUSUAL NESTING-SITES FOR GOLDCREST. 

 The nest shown in the accompanying photograph was found 

 in a wood by Bomere Pool, Shrewsbury, on April 17th. At 

 first sight I supposed it to be a Chaffinch's, though there were 



