204 NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 
was able to watch the operations of the birds. One pair, 
probably a young couple, were many days before they even got 
a foundation to their nest. They would seem to have selected 
an unsuitable fork, and partly owing to the difficulty of con- 
struction arising from this cause, and partly from the fact that 
as soon as they flew away to fetch more building material, the 
other Rooks stole their “twigs,” it seemed as though they would 
never get beyond the first few twigs. At last, on March zoth, 
when they had been engaged over a fortnight, a gale blew down 
their nest and another, and so frightened all the Rooks that 
they left their work for a few days. At last, however, all the 
nests were completed. A. OW 
Note on SEA GULLS. 
On October zoth, 1878, I observed a long scattered line of 
Gulls, all flying from the Little Orme to Colwyn Bay, where 
they alighted on the sea close to the shore. I then noticed an 
immense shoal of ‘‘ Whitebait,” or young Herrings, extending 
along the shore as far as the eye could reach, and forming a 
dark band in the water so close to the edge that many were 
thrown on shore, and a good sized dish of them was secured in 
this way. The Gulls soon gorged themselves, and remained 
sitting on the water ready for another meal. It would be 
interesting to know how the information as to the presence of 
the shoal was communicated to the Gulls on the Little Orme! 
A. O. W. 
THE Birps oF A ToOwN GARDEN, 1884. 
Our gardens, forming part of a wide open space between 
56—60, Watergate Street and Matthew Henry’s Chapel, and 
containing many large trees—Ash, Elm, Birch, Sycamore, with 
Laburnum, Lilac, &c.—are frequented not only by Sparrows, 
Jackdaws, and Starlings, but (more rarely) by Redbreasts, Blue 
Tits, and Blackbirds. This last summer and the preceding 
(of 1883) we have been visited by one of the Woodwrens; 
I suspect the Chiff-chaff, because that bird (betrayed un- 
mistakably by its note, though feeble) was seen there twice, with 
a long interval, very late in the season (I believe once in 
November) a good many years ago. In 1883, they came in two 
batches, first three and then two, the latter being at once 
persecuted by the former; but the five remained. 
This last summer they came while we were away, and soon 
disappeared, probably because the Heracleum ponticum, which 
supplied them with Ajfhzdes, was destroyed early by cater- 
pillars. J. PRICE. 
EFFECTS OF THE WINTER 1878-79 ON THE THROSTLE. 
After the severe weather of this winter, which began on 
December gth and continued with few breaks till far into the 
spring, Throstles ( Zurdus musicus) became remarkably scarce. 
