VOL. XIII.] iNOTKS. 219 



nests, and only found one SwalloAv's nest with five, broods of 

 four were quite rare, three being the most common number. 

 There was quite an alarming number of dead House-Martins, 

 many of them fully fledged ; in fact, in one farm alone, I 

 found ten dead young, and in one nest captured a single young 

 one, apparently in good health, on the top of four dead fully 

 feathered birds. I am quite unable to explain this very 

 prevalent mortality, unless it was caused by parasites, which, 

 in this year, seemed to infest the House-Martin's nests even 

 more freely than usual. H. J. Vaughan. 



LITTLE OWLS IN CORNWALL. 



A Little Owl {Athene n. noctua) was caught in a rabbit 

 trap on December 4th, 1919, in this parish, St. Keverne, 

 near Helston. One was taken to Truro Museum in the last 

 frost, caught in a rabbit trap in Very an. These are the first 

 instances I have heard of in this part of Cornwall, since Rodd 

 recorded one in the Zoologist, July, 1870. P. D. Williams. 



[This is the most westerly record we know of. The Little 

 Owls west of the Tamar, referred to on page 198 antea, being 

 the first news of the bird having reached Cornwall. Mr. A. 

 St. G. Sargeaunt writes to the Field (December 13th, 1919) 

 from Padstow that two Little Owls were shot there towards 

 the end of 1918 and that he has recently seen one and heard 

 of two others in the same district. — Eds.] 



WHITE-TAILED EAGLES IN SOMERSET. 



At the end of March, 1879, two White-tailed Eagles {Haliaeius 

 albicilla) appeared in the deer park at Oare Manor, Exmoor. 

 One was shot by Joe Kingdom, the keeper, after it had killed 

 a Blackcock, and was set up at Barnstaple. It is now at 

 Oare Manor in the possession of Sir E. Mountain and I had 

 the pleasure recently of inspecting it and confirming the 

 identification. 



On March 9th, 1919, an Eagle of some kind swooped down 

 over the dwelling house on Steep Holm, in the Bristol Channel, 

 five and a half miles off Weston-super-Mare, going in a north- 

 easterly direction. Thomas Sleeman, who was repairing the 

 roof at the time, said that the bird came quite close to him 

 and two ladies also saw it, but were unfortunately unable to 

 identify the species. Stanley Lewis. 



A WOOD-PIGEON'S RUSE. 



I WAS greatly interested in Mr. H. A. Booth's note about a 

 nesting W ocd-Pigeon's ruse {antea, p. 165). For on September 



