30 



(2.) Dendrocopus major. Greater Spotted Woodpecker. 



Several pairs of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers nested in the 

 North of the county in 1886. Mr. Duckworth and Mr. Cairns 

 visited a favourite haunt of this species in April, and had the 

 pleasure of examining a nest excavated out of a wild cherry tree, 

 at a height of ten feet from the ground. The orifice measured 

 13| inches in diameter, and had been prepared with care, the rough 

 edges having been bevelled ofif as neatly as if the operation had 

 been effected by means of a rasp. 



A Greater Spotted Woodpecker was shot (by misadventure) in 

 the same locality on June 24th, and proved to be a feathered 

 nestling. 



(3.) Spatula chipeata. Shoveller. 



Mr. Duckworth observed several pairs of Shovellers on the 

 preserved water at Monkhill, in April. 



On the 8th of May, Mr. Smith of Drumburgh was fortunate 

 enough to discover a Shovellers nest, placed in a tussock of grass 

 on one of the Solway salt marshes. It contained nine eggs, seven 

 of which were hatched by a fowl, the first chick emerging from the 

 shell on May 26th, in the presence of Mr. Duckworth. The young 

 birds unluckily proved to be delicate, and only one lived long 

 enough to become feathered. 



Mr. Macpherson submitted two of the "downs" to Mr. Bidwell, 

 who has long made a special study of "downs." Mr. Henry 

 Seebohm obligingly examined a portion of the nest down, and 

 decided that it was that of the Shoveller. 



Mr. Smith had reported the Shoveller as present in his district 

 in summer iu previous years. 



An adult male Shoveller, in eclipse dress, was shot near Drum- 

 burgh in the middle of October, and added to Mr. Macpherson's 

 series of Anatidte. 



Further particulars of the distribution of the Shoveller during 

 the breeding season, together with a description of the young in 

 down, will be found in The Naturalist, 1886, pp. 235-6. 



(4.) Columba livia. Rockdove. 



In April, Mr. H. Nott observed a single Rockdove fly off a ledge 

 at Sandwith, on which three pairs of Rockdoves nested in 1884. 



