NOTES. 51 



NIGHTINGALE NESTING IN HEREFORDSHIRE. 



A PAIR of Nightingales {DauUas luscinia) have just (June 

 13th, 1911) got their young off safely in Herefordshire — in 

 the valle}^ of the Teme— about midway between Knighton 

 and Ludlow, on the Downton Castle Estate. I think this 

 is the only pair near here. This is in the very north of 

 Herefordshire. W. S. Medlicott. 



LITTLE OWLS IN LINCOLNSHIRE. 



The Little Owl {Athene noctua) must be greatly on the increase 

 in this county, at any rate in the district between Peterborough 

 and Grantham, for during the first Aveek of May this year 

 (1911) I found four nests with four eggs in each; in each 

 case the nest was in an ash tree, one nest being in an old hole 

 of the Green Woodpecker. In addition to finding these four 

 nests, I saw two or three Little Owls out in the open, one of 

 them about mid-day and the others about 5. p.m. Probably 

 there were several other nests in the immediate neighbourhood 

 for each one that I met with, which tends to show that the 

 Little Owl is not only fairly common, but plentiful in the 

 above-mentioned district. C. E. Stracey Clitherow. 



RED GROUSE IN BERKSHIRE. 



A specimen of the Red Grouse {Lagopus scoticus) was brought 

 to me for identification on March 2nd, 1911. It was obtained 

 ahve by an agricultural labourer within 200 yards of an iron- 

 foundry in the small town of Wantage, in excellent condition, 

 but apparently much exhausted. I am well acquainted with 

 all the big shoots in the neighbourhood, and for ornithological 

 purposes am in constant communication with the game- 

 keepers : as far as I can ascertain, no Red Grouse have been 

 turned down anywhere within twenty miles. The wind at the 

 time of the procuring of the specimen had been blowing 

 persistently from the south-west for several days. I must 

 leave your readers to form their own opinion as to the starting 

 point of the bird before it reached its destination here. I am 

 certain (after careful inquiries) that it could not have possibly 

 come from anywhere in the immediate neighbourhood. 



W. M. WOODHOUSE.. 



[We believe that the Grouse Disease Commission have lately 

 sold off the stock of Red Grouse kept at the Experimental 

 Farm in Surrey, and it seems quite possible that one of these 

 birds has escaped from captivity, or has been turned down. It 

 is very unlikely that a truly wild bird would have strayed so 

 far from its nearest breeding-haunts as Wantage. — Eds.] 



