nOTES 



GREY WAGTAILS NESTING AT A DISTANCE 

 FROM WATER. 



A PAIR of Grey Wagtails {Motacilla c. cinerea) brought off 

 a brood this year from a nest in a hole under a window-sill 

 in Sizergh Castle, Westmorland. The Castle is a mile from 

 the River Kent. E. U. Savage. 



[See British Birds, V., pp. 133 and 165, for other instances 

 of breeding at a distance from water. — F.C.R.J.] 



WINTER IMMIGRATION OF GOLDCRESTS AND 

 FIRECRESTS IN KENT. 



Since the frost of 1917 Goldcrests {Regulus r. anglorum) 

 have been extremely scarce near Cranbrook, as in many other 

 parts of the country, and in the breeding season of 1918 I 

 only knew of two or three pairs, all in extensive pine woods 

 a few miles away. On Oct. 22nd, 1918, I first noticed two 

 birds near Cranbrook, and a few days later Goldcrests had 

 become quite abundant in all pine regions ; I also saw a few 

 apparently on the move westwards in hedges, and on the 30th 

 two in the flat country near the Rother. I did not observe 

 any further movement of Goldcrests after the end of the 

 month, but on Nov. i6th I saw a female Firecrest {Regulus 

 i. ignicapillus) . The following day I saw a male in another 

 place. The former bird I did not see again, but the latter 

 remained till Dec. 3rd., after which it disappeared. In the 

 spring I kept a close look-out for it again, and sure enough it 

 reappeared on March 6th and stayed till the 31st, frequently 

 singing. During the winter two Goldcrests had haunted the 

 same place, but these disappeared after March i6th, and the 

 number in Angley Park, where in early March there had been 

 a party of nearly twenty, gradually diminished, till at the 

 end of the month only one or two were left, though on April 

 3rd I saw a part}^ of about eight at another part. In one or 

 two other places in the neighbourhood I heard Goldcrests 

 singing vigorously in early April, as if they had established 

 themselves again for breeding purposes. 



H. G. Alexander. 



GREAT TIT LAYING IN AN OPEN NEST. 



On May 23rd a Haileybury boy, E. B. Coventry, found in an 

 open nest in a hedge eggs that looked like those of a Great 



