156 BRITISH HIKDS. [vol. ix 



I may relate that on Augii.st 2nd, 1915, near Beaulieu. 

 Hampshire, I found a hen Nightjar sitting on two eggs, and 

 about three feet awaj'^ the cock ])ird lirooding a young one 

 not quite in full feather. E. M. Imrie. 



[It has now been known for some years past that the Night- 

 jar has reared two broods in the season in captivity, and the 

 late date on which eggs and young have been met with 

 furnishes strong ]iresumptive evidence of its being double- 

 brooded. ( See note on this subject in British Birds, Vol. VIII. , 

 p. 117. Cf. also Zoologist, 1884, p. 7, etc.). The above note 

 is the more welcome as it furnishes absolute proof that late 

 nests are in some cases second broods and not late layings 

 of birds which have lost their first nests. — F.C.R.J.] 



GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER FEEDINCJ ON 

 THE GROUND. 



V\ iTH reference to Mr. E. W. Hendy's note (antxa, p. 124), 

 it may be of interest to state that in late February or early 

 March of last year (1914) Mr. R. Burnier and I saw a single 

 adult Great Spotted \\'oo(l])('cker feeding on the broad 

 playing-groiuids of Bradtield College. It was hopping about 

 and prodding into the soft turf with its beak. 



Patrick A. Chubb. 



LARGE CLUTCH OF LITTLK CHIEBE'S EGGS. 



While staying in the neighbourhood of Thursley, Surrey, 

 (luring May, 1915, I found the nest of a Little Grebe 

 {Colymhvs r. ruficollis) containing seven eggs. This number, 

 in my experience, is quite exceptional, the majority of full 

 clutches I have examined consisting of four or five eggs. I 

 have only once seen a completed clutch of six eggs. 



Howard Bentham. 



[Clutches of six are by no means uncommon in the case of 

 this species, but sets of seven are much scarcer. Colonel 

 W. V. Legge has recorded one from Essex, and others have 

 been taken by Messrs. R. W. Chase, H. Noble, and the Rev. 

 J. R. Hale. Similar sets have also been found in Hungary 

 by Mr. R. B. Lodge, in Germany by the late H. Hocke, in 

 Spain by Majoi' F. W. Proctor (2) and in AUicria ]\y the writer. 

 — F.(Mi.J.| 



SOCIABLK I'LON'KIJS IN SUSSEX. 



Three Sociable Plovers (( '//(lliisia (irKjaria) were shot near 

 Wiiichclsea : the tirsl on Mav 9th. 1914. is now in the Boval 



