22 Occasional JYoles. 



3. Members of the Union may be glad to hear that 

 Mr. Haagner, who has been the Hon. Secretary o£ their 

 Association since its inception, and Joint-Editor of the 

 ' Journal^ since 1907, has been honoured by the Hungarian 

 Government, the Royal Hungarian Minister of Agriculture 

 having conferred on him a " Diploma^' as Hon. Member of 

 the Royal Hungarian Central Bureau of Ornithology. The 

 British Ornithologists' Union has also honoured him by 

 electing him a " Colonial" Member of their Union. 



4. Bi-annual Nidification of Black-chested Wren- 

 Warbler, — An instance of bi-annual nidification has recently 

 come under my observation which may be of sufficient interest 

 to publish. About a month ago a pair of Black-chested Wren- 

 Warblers (^Prinia flavicans) were to be seen carrying material 

 about the flower-garden here, evidently with the object of 

 building a nest. On looking about I located the nest in a 

 may-bush almost finished. Sparrows are in the habit of 

 building extra-warm nests to sleep in during the winter, and 

 I thought that this nest was built for a similar reason. I 

 was much surprised, therefore, when I found three eggs in 

 it ten days later. They were of the usual type. To-day, on 

 examining the nest, the old birds made a great fuss, and I 

 found the funny little young ones had deserted the nest and 

 were in hiding, looking ver}^ cold and miserable, in the 

 neighbouring hedges. 



The breeding-season for these Warblers is during the 

 hottest months of the year, and this occurrence is such an 

 unusual one that it is hard to account for. 



Pretoria, 8. 7. 09. AusTIN ROBERTS. 



5. Record of Garden Warbler at Port Elizabeth. — 

 Last month a specimen of the Garden AVarbler [Sylvia 

 simplex) was shot at Perseverance, which is a railway station 



