290 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[December 1, 1897. 



Brttt'sf) 0initi)ological jHotrs. 



Conducted by Harey F. Wituekby, f.z.s., m.b.o.u. 



The Eggs of the Cdrlkw Sandpiper (Anci/lochilus sub- 

 aiijuatus). — At the meeting of the British Ornithologists' 

 Club held on October 20th, 1897, Mr. H. L. Popham ex- 

 hibited a clutch of four eggs of the curlew sandpiper. 

 Mr. Popham took these eggs, along with the female bird 

 shot off the nest, on an island at the mouth of the Yenesei, 

 on July 3rd, 1897. The eggs were laid in a hollow in 

 reindeer moss. They are about the size and the shape of 

 those of a dunlin, and are huffish green in ground colour 

 and blotched and spotted with rich brown, especially on 

 the thicker end. We take the opportunity of heartily 

 congratulating Mr. Popham on his sensational find. Mr. 

 Popham has already done a good deal of sound ornitho- 

 logical work, but nothing that he has done will make him 

 more famous than the discovery of the first authenticated 

 eggs on record of the curlew sandpiper. The eggs of the 

 knot are now the only ones of any British bird which 

 remain to be discovered. 



Aquatic Warbler in Sussex and Hampshire. — On Tues- 

 day, September 7th, while in my garden at 15, Iligh- 

 croft Villas, Brighton, I saw and watched for some time 

 a beautiful specimen of the aquatic warbler. It was very 

 tame, and when first noticed was moving quickly about in 

 a pear tree, and I supposed it to be a sedge warbler. As I 

 approached, the bird came out on the side of the tree 

 nearest to me, and sat at the end of a projecting branch, 

 quietly watching me for two or three minutes. In this 

 position I was able to examine it closely, and I saw at 

 once that it was an aquatic warbler. The pale band down 

 the middle of crown was quite distinct, and on each side 

 of it two blackish lines, and the light linQ over each eye : 

 also it had about five rows of minute dots on the breast. 

 As it was so tame I went indoors for a butterfly net, thinking 

 I might catch it, but on returning it flew away. Oii 

 September 20th I had a beautiful specimen of the same 

 species sent for preservation by the liev. Ssott,of Hivant. 

 It was caught by a fox terrier in Farlington Marsh, and 

 is a male bird. — John Pratt, Brighton. 



Occurrence of the Pectoral Sandpiper [Triiiita nuicuhtta) 

 IN HoLDERNEss.^An adult male in summer plumage was 

 shot by a coastguard on September 28th, on the margin of 

 a pond on the fitties, near the Humber side, or Easington, 

 in llolderness. This, a most beautiful and cleanly shot 

 example, was seen by myself, Mr. Howard Saunders, and 

 Mr. W. Eagle Clarke on the same evening, and it has 

 now been presented by Mr. Clarke to the Edinburgh 

 Museum. The one already figured iu the late Lord Lilford's 

 " Illustrations of British Birds" was shot near the same 

 place on October 2'2ad, in 1888, This sandpiper has 

 occurred more frequently in the British Islands than any 

 other of the American waders, and no doubt has been very 

 often overlooked when killed by the ordinary coast shooter 

 in the autumn. In both the Spurn examples the first 

 possessors were quite ignorant that they had got a rare 

 bird. — John Cordbaux, Great Cotes House, R.S.O., Lincoln. 



Herring Gulls and Guillemot. — With reference to 

 the above note, if Mr. Cordeaux has relied on the 

 evidence of the cliff climbers I fear the record is much 

 vitiated as such — for, with the best intentions in 

 the world, and without the slightest desire to deceive, 

 these men cling most persistently to traditions handed 

 down amongst them without taking the trouble to verify 

 the facts for themselves. I, like Mr. Cordeaux, have 

 picked up guillemots' eggs, fresh and unbroken, on the 



shore about Filey ; but I have very good reasons for stating 

 that the eggs are frequently dropped by the birds them- 

 selves in the water, in the same way that ducks and 

 geese often drop their eggs ; and, given calm weather and a 

 smooth bottom, there is nothing remarkable in such hard- 

 sheUed eggs being washed up intact. — Oxley Grabham, 

 Chestnut House, Heworth, York. 



Mr. W. Foster, of 41, Belmont Road, Liverpool, also 

 writes that he is confident that guillemots lay eggs in the 

 water, and that he has never seen a gull carry off an egg 

 in its feet. 



Mr. F. 11. Worsley-Benison writes that he has watched 

 gulls at the Stack Rocks, in Pembrokeshire, " constantly 

 flying around, and on every possible opportunity flying in 

 and carrying oft' any egg that was partly or altogether 

 exposed, but always in the beak. I never saw an egg 

 carried in the feet." Mr. Benison adds that " it is certain 

 that they carry off the guillemots' eggs whole in the beak. 

 I did not observe on any occasion that the eggs were 

 impaled on the beak." 



[Limits of space preclude the insertion of any further 

 letters upon this subject.] 



A Strange Site for a Nightingale's Nest. — At Cran- 

 brook, in Kent, there is a rifle range which is used by the 

 local volunteers for rifle practice, and at a distance of 

 about six feet behind the targets there has been built a 

 large stack of faggots which serves to stop the spent 

 bullets. This year a pair of nightingales selected the stack 

 as the site for their nest, which they built in the interior 

 at a distance of about fifteen inches from the surface of the 

 front facing the targets, about four feet from the ground, 

 and almost in a direct line with the centre of one of the 

 targets, which are constructed of canvas and allow the 

 bullets to pass through directly into the faggots. In 

 that situation the birds built their nest, hatched 

 their eggs, and reared their young, literally in the 

 laidst of a storm of bullets, one of which ultimately proved 

 fatal to one of the youngsters. My informant was Colour- 

 Sergeant W. Cogger, of the Maidstone company, 1st West 

 Kent Rifle Volunteers, who very kindly furnished me with 

 the particulars, and who, when acting as a marker, had 

 every opportunity for watching the parent birds, who were 

 engaged in feeding their young. Mr. Cogger told me that 

 whilst he was in the butts at leass four hundred bullets 

 were fired at the targets, and the wood of the faggots was 

 splintered in every direction round the nest. — J. Herbert 

 Allchin, Maidstone, November, 1897. 



Unusual Nesting Site of the Blackbird and Song 

 Thrush. — On April 18th this year I was walking across 

 Esher Common when I flushed a blackbird from oft' her 

 nest, which was placed upon the ground amongst the 

 heather and contained four eggs. About a yard from the 

 blackbird's nest I flushed a thrush, and wis surprised on 

 looking down to find its nest, containing five eggs. Both 

 nests were on the open heath, although some distance away 

 there were plenty of bushes.— E. J. Kiti'iien, Battersea. 



[The blackbird not infrequently builds upon the ground ; 

 the song thrush rarely does so. — H.F.W.] 



Late Nesting of the Song Thrush. — As a proof of 

 the mildness and warmth of the season for the last few 

 weeks, I was shown a few days ago, by the gamekeepar at 

 Abbot's Leigh, near here, a nest of the song thrush con- 

 taining four eggs, upon which the hen bird had been sitting 

 for several days. — George II\ri>ing, 9, Balle Vue, Clifton, 

 November 8th, 1897. 



Maksh Tits and Honeysuckle. — Is it generally known 

 that the marsh tit eats the red berries of the honeysuckle '? 



