NOTES. 53 



the Crossbills were feeding on the swollen stems of the shoots 

 and the insect-contents of the breeding-cavities in them 

 occupied by an aphis {Chermes abietis), numerous specimens 

 of which have since hatched out from the sample sent. This 

 habit of the Crossbills has recently been remarked upon and 

 described by Herr R. H. Stamm in the Dansk Oryiithologisk 

 Forening Tidsskrift (An. IV., pt. II., pp. 45-49). 



N. F. TiCEHURST, Hon. Secretary. 



[It was also noted in our last volume (Vol. III., p. 193), that 

 Crossbills had been proved to be feeding upon Chermes abietis. 

 Some specimens were sent to me at the time by Commander 

 H. Lynes, and the gizzards of the birds were found to contain 

 immature examples of this aphis. Commander Lynes also 

 sent some of the galls which he had observed the Crossbills 

 attacking.— H. F. W.] 



Kent. — On April 29th a flock of fifteen or sixteen near 

 Tenterden, newly arrived, had been there a day or two, 

 no signs of nesting and no young seen. Passed on in 

 a day or two. May 1st to 14th, none seen ; but on the 

 15th some recently plucked cones found ; on the 18th 

 one female ; on the 20th, one male ; on the 30th, five 

 or six — no young seen ; on May 31st a flock of fifteen 

 to twenty, some of them being fully-grown young which 

 had the upper and lower beak just crossing at the tip. 

 June 1st, still there ; June 2nd to 7th, none seen ; but 

 on the 7th recently plucked cones found {Claud B. Tice- 

 hurst). 

 Surrey. — One on April 24th at Lingfield and one on May 22nd 

 at Oxted {H. Bentham). 



PEREGRINE FALCONS AT BEMPTON. 



The Peregrine Falcons have again nested at Bempton, on the 

 ground climbed by John Hodgson, and near the place where 

 they bred last year. When climbing commenced, on May 9th, 

 1910, three young ones were found in the eyrie ; these are now 

 strong on the wing, and to-day (June 15tli) I disturbed one, 

 on the grass at the cliff-top, feeding on a homing-Pigeon. 



T. H. Nelson. 



UNUSUAL NESTING-SITE FOR THE COMMON SNIPE. 



At Norton, Suffolk, on May 26th, 1910, some men hoeing wheat 

 showed me a nest of the Common Snipe {Gallinago coelestis) in 

 the middle of the field, in exactly the place where one might 

 expect to see the nest of a Skylark or Corn-Bunting. The 

 eggs seemed to be hard-set, and the bird probably resorted 



