VOL. X.] ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FOR 1916. 235 



Yellow Wagtail {Motacilla f. raifi). 



Mr. Vincent referring to the Broads district writes on 

 May 19th :— 



'■ Am surjirised at the extraordinary^ dearth of Yellow 

 Wagtails this spring ; this bird gets less every year .... 

 I should think ten is the most I have seen all the spring." 



Has this scarcity been elsewhere noticed ? It is one of 

 onr earliest migrants to arrive. 



Bearded Tit [Panurus b. biarmicus). 



The status of this species does not vary very much on the 

 Broads, although it had sunk rather low at one time, owing 

 not to the hard winters as interested " Broadmen " woukl 

 have us believe, but to the depredations of dealers. Hard 

 winters, however, undoubtedly make them wander away 

 from the Broads, and then smaller reed-beds at a great 

 distance are sometimes visited. At the present time it 

 would be fairly safe to assess the total number of nests at 

 about eighty, and as the protection they receive is no longei 

 a nominal one, there should be no further diminution. 



I can add nothing to Miss Turner's admirable observations 

 {British Birds, Vol. VI., p. 138). except that the male occasion- 

 ally takes part in the duties of incubation, and that the 

 period is about the same as in other small birds — fourteen 

 days. The female was sitting on a nest which Dr. Long and 

 I examined last year on the 15tli of April, but this year I 

 have not had a chance to see one. 



The four rows of raised black and white dots upon the 

 palate of the nestling Bearded Tit, first described in 1899 in 

 The Norwich Naturalists' Trans. (VI., p. 435), alwaj^s remind 

 me of the bright colours of the buckbean. The nests are 

 exposed to predatory animals, and it is conceivable that these 

 spots have a protective value. 



Redstart (Phcenicurus ph. phoenicurus). 



The Redstart and the Nightingale seem to have forsaken 

 east Norfolk, one used to consider them rather common birds, 

 but now a pair here and there is all there are. Maybe the 

 cold springs and storms on migration are accountable for 

 this decrease, all the more so as it is not confined to this 

 county (see British Birds, Vol. VIII., p. 108). 



Redbreast (Erithacus r. melophilus). 

 A Robin sitting on nine eggs f in May was an unusual 

 sight ; I have never seen such a large clutch as nine, and 



