126 ORMITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM DERBYSHIRE. 



Tree Pipit run a yard or so from the nest occasionally, when 

 taken by surprise, but never quite like this. Another Tree 

 Pipit's nest in a railway cutting contained a fine olive brown 

 Cuckoo's egg in addition to four red-spotted eggs of the Pipit 

 (May 30th). On the way home we surprised a Stoat in the 

 act of killing a rabbit in the usual way, paralyzing it by a bite 

 at the back of the head. 



The Great Spotted Woodpecker seems to have been driven 

 away from the Ramsor woods by the extensive felling that 

 has been carried on there, and a careful search on May 31st 

 failed to show any signs of birds or new nest holes. Under- 

 neath a Kestrel's nest lay a dead hen Kestrel, which had 

 obviously been shot as she flew from her eggs. On June 4th 

 I climbed to another Kestrel's nest in a Magpie's nest at the 

 top of a tall larch. Earlier in the season the local keeper 

 had shot both Magpies from this nest, and a few days before 

 my visit I was informed that he had managed to kill both 

 Kestrels. In the nest were four eggs, cold and wet. The 

 thorny roof of the nest was still in place, but the lining of 

 roots had been ejected by the hawks. 



In some open sheds at the Dog and Partridge Inn, Thorpe, 

 several pairs of House Martins were nesting on the beams 

 inside the roofing, instead of affixing their nests to the outside 

 walls, as is usually the habit of this species. The entrance 

 to these nests was at the side, unlike the open nests built by 

 the Swallow. 



The warm summer must have been favourable to bird life 

 on the whole, as the clutches were in many cases larger than 

 usual. Thus a nest of the Greenfinch found on June 9th 

 contained seven eggs; one of the Thrush had six (the only one 

 I have ever met with, although I have examined many hun- 

 dreds), while two Blackbirds' nests with six eggs were reported 

 to me— one from Egginton (Rev. F. F. Key), and one from 

 Clifton. However, the most extraordinary case occurred at 

 Osmaston, where the Tufted Ducks are common, and breed 

 on the islets in the ponds. On one of these islets, covered 



