nOTES 



PIED WAGTAILS NESTING ON THE GROUND. 



Referring to Mr. Cliflford Borrer's note on this su])jec't 

 (p. 26, ante), I have rarely seen the nest of the Pied Wagtail 

 [MotaciUa a. li(guhn's) in Ireland in any other position than 

 071 the ground. A frequent position is in a recess in a bank 

 but here the nest is on the ground. Once I saw this nest 

 in a heap of refuse stones in a quarry, but here also it was 

 placed on the ground where there was a cavity in the heap. 

 Thompson {Nat. Hist, of Ireland, Vol. I., p. 216) says : '' The 

 situations generally known to me as selected for its nest 

 were on the ground beneath piles of loosely-heaped stones." 



Nevin H. Foster. 

 [There is nothing unusual in the fact of a Pied Wagtail 

 breeding on the ground in a hollow on a bank side, in stone 

 quarries, etc., but Mr. Borrer's note refers to a nest found 

 on the ground among sand dunes, a much less frequent site. 

 I have, however, seen nests of the White Wagtail {31. alba 

 alba) similarly placed, under shelter of the tufts of marram 

 grass, on the islands off the Dutch Coast. — F.C.R.J.] 



EARLY NESTING OF REED-WARBLER. 



On May 16th, 1915, I found a completely finished nest of 

 a Reed-Warbler {Acrocephalus s. streperus) at the Tring 

 Reservoirs, Hertfordshire. I think this is a quite unusuall}- 

 early record. E. Hartert. 



[Mr. A. H. Daukes records having found two nests with four 

 eggs and one with five eggs on the River Cam on May 15th. 

 an extraordinarily early date (Country Life, July 24th. 1909. 

 ]). 143). A nest with three eggs on i\Iay 23rd is recorded 

 in the Field (2, VI., 1906), and a nest with eggs from Cheshire 

 on May 20th, 1908, is mentioned in the Bull. B.O.C., XXIV.. 

 p. 102. On one occasion I found young in a nest at Oxford 

 on June 7th, and I also found a nest with two eggs at the 

 same place on May 21st, 1886.— F.C.R.J.] 



mSTLE-THRUSH, SONG-THRUSH AND BLACKBIRD 

 SINGING ON THE WING. 



Referring to the notes on this subject (Brit. Birds, 

 Vol. VIII., p. 292 ; Vol. IX., p]). 26-7) I nu\y state that I 

 have two records of a ]\Iistle-Thrush singing on the wing, 

 and several of Song-Thru.shes and Blackbirds performing in 



