VoL. xI.] NOTES. 21 
UNUSUAL NESTING-SITE OF WILLOW-WARBLER. 
THE extraordinary wet weather conditions of the later spring 
of 1916 were adverse to ground-breeding birds. On July 
15th I watched a pair of Willow-Warblers (Phylloscopus t. 
trochilus) feeding young. The nest was well concealed in a 
climbing rose, where also ivy helped to make more cover, 
on the north side of a house (in Northumberland) some six 
feet from a path below which, again, was a drop of nearly 
four feet. The young birds, therefore, looked out on the 
world from a height of 7 ten feet, an unusual position for 
them. 
The nest showed wisdom in choice of position, for brooding 
was then possible when the ground all around was a “ waste 
of waters.” CATHARINE HODGKIN. 
[Cf. Zool. 1868, p. 1294 ; 1872, p. 3228; 1899, p. 556. ete.— 
FC.RJ.] 
EARLY, LAYING OF REED-WARBLER AND CUCKOO. 
Wiru reference to the notes which have appeared on this 
subject (antea, Vol. [X., p. 48; X., pp. 20 and 41), it may 
be worth while recording that in 1909 I have a special note 
of a nest of a Reed-Warbler on June 3rd with young a few 
days old in Berkshire, and the same day noted two pairs 
building on a private island previously undisturbed. As 
regards the Cuckoo, my experience is that between June 
4th and 14th is the most favourable time for finding their 
egos in the nests of the Reed-Warbler. Earlier dates noted 
are June 8th, 1916, when I found a Reed-Warbler’s nest 
containing five eggs and a Cuckoo’s egg, all just chipping, 
and on May 28th and 30th, two nests each containing a 
Cuckoo’s egg, in the latter case the egg being fairly incubated. 
On several occasions I have found the nest quite high up, two 
in 1916 in elder trees could not have been less than 16 and 
20 feet up respectively. GWYNNE WITHERINGTON. 
MORTALITY AMONG BARN-OWLS IN IRELAND. 
Tats year (1917) some disease has attacked Barn-Owls (7'yto 
a. alba) over a great part of Ireland. During March and the 
first week in April I examined no less than one hundred and 
sixty examples all in the same condition. They were greatly 
emaciated, the body being so thin and wasted that little more 
than feathers, skin and bones, were left, the stomachs were 
entirely empty, but the plumage was in excellent condition. 
At first I thought that this condition might have been caused 
by the birds picking up poisoned vermin, but if this was the 
cause the Long-eared Owl would suffer similarly, and I have 
