VOL. IX.] NOTES. 181 



is, within fourteen clays — an average of rather less than five 

 days between each clearance. 



There were several other cases which were little less striking ; 

 but. taking only the three cases cited, one finds it demon- 

 strated that a pair of Sparrows is easily able, in less than 

 seven days, not only to build a new nest outright and to la}^ 

 in it a small clutch of eggs, but to repeat the performance 

 several times in succession without any interval. 



I cannot prove, of course, that, in each case, all the eggs 

 laid in succession in any one nest were the product of one 

 and the same pair of birds. It seemed clear indeed that 

 they were not so ; for in some cases the eggs belonging to 

 a clutch differed so widely that they can hardly all have 

 been laid by one pair of birds. This was due, no doubt, 

 to my constant clearances of the boxes (carried out at 

 intervals of little more than a week), which must have 

 incommoded the laying birds very seriously and have 

 compelled them to lay hap-hazard in one another's nests. 

 That they actually did this was clearly proved in the case 

 of one box (No. 7) which, though unoccupied when 

 examined on 29th May, was found only seven days later 

 (on June 5th) to hold a nest containing seven eggs — 

 evidently, from their different colouring and markings, the 

 product of at least two and probably several birds. Again 

 I ask : Need one wonder at the extraordinary abundance 

 of the Sparrow ? Miller Christy. 



LAPLAND BUNTINGS IN SUFFOLK. 



As the Lapland Bunting {Calcarius I. lapponicus) seems to 

 have been rarely recorded for Suffolk, the following occur- 

 rences near Alcleburgh may be noteworthy. I saw one on 

 September 22nd, 1 91 1, two on October 4th, and quite a number 

 on October 9th and 10th in the company of Larks and Twites. 

 I also saw four or five throughout January, 1912, among the 

 Snow-Buntings on the marshes. I was away in the autumns 

 of 1912 and 1913 but obtained single birds on September 21st 

 and October 3rd, 1 914. Between September 25th and November 

 lOtli, 1915, I have seen single birds among the Larks almost 

 every day I have looked for them, including a party of ten on 

 October 22nd, and four on November 4th and 5tli. I have 

 always found this bird very wild and difficult to observe 

 on the ground, but it may be easily identified on rising by 

 its chattering note, and also by a single silvery note on the 

 A\ing. It flies an immense distance Avhen disturbed. 



J. K. Stanford. 



