28 BRITISH BIUDS. vol ix. 



had been much enlarged inside. The nest was n)Ot nearly 

 so bulky as usual and most of the moss exterior was missing. 

 There was a small dome and the nest contained four fresh 

 eggs. As incubation advanced the mouth of the hole got 

 rather enlarged and very slippery, owing to the birds bringing 

 wet when they alighted. The entrance to the nest was about 

 six inches up the hole. J. H. Owen. 



SNIPE LAYING FIVE EGGS. 

 On April 21st, 1915, I found in Denbighshire several nests 

 of Snipe {Gallinago y. gallinayo), one of which contained two 

 fresh eggs. I revisited this nest on April 25th, and was 

 very surprised to find that it contained five eggs. Judging 

 by the similarity of the eggs they seemed to be the produce 

 of one bird. On this day the eggs were arranged at various 

 angles, but when I next looked at the nest later in the month 

 the five eggs were all turned with their points inA\ards as 

 is usual in normal clutches of four. I think, however, 

 this arrangement is unusual in cases of five eggs in Limicoline 

 birds. I have seen two sets of five eggs in Lapwings' nests, 

 and in each case four eggs were pointed inwards and the 

 fifth was outside the square. J. H. Owen. 



BLACK TERNS IN MONMOUTHSHIRE. 



On May 9th, 1915, I saw a Black Tern {Hydrochelidon n. 

 nigra) at the Yns-y-fro Reservoir, near Newport. It was 

 apparently catching insects, flying across the lake against 

 the wind to do so, and then quickly returning to the lee side 

 to repeat its flight. It did not touch the water while I 

 watched it. 



I have also seen a second specimen shot on 30tli April, 

 1912, while hawking over a pond on the northern boundary 

 of the county near Beaufort. 



A Turnstone {Arenaria i. interpres) was shot on Yns-y-fro 

 Reservoir on 7th inst., after feeding tliere all day. Distance 

 from the sea 4 miles. R. C Banks. 



UNRECORDED IVORY-GULL FROM ORKNEY. 



Howard Saunders, in his Manual of British Birds, states 

 that the Ivory-Gull (Pagophila ehurnea) has occurred four 

 times in Orkney, and about thirty-five times in all in Great 

 Britain. Mr. Thomas Gromid, of Biriuingham, writes me 

 that he has in his colk'ction an adult s])ecimen. sex \Miknown, 

 which was shot at Holm, Orkney, on or about Ajn-il 1st. 

 1895, and forwarded to him through the late Jiiumy 

 Sutherland, of Stromness. It was observed, on or about 



