
STARLING NESTING IN A LAUREL BUSH. 
Ir is perhaps worth being put on record that a Starling 
(Sturnus v. vulgaris) is nesting in a laurel bush here at 
Wadhurst, Sussex. The nest is a bulky open one with a 
deep cup. It is built of the usual materials near the top of 
the bush about nine feet from the ground, and until the eggs 
were laid was taken to be an unfinished House-Sparrow’s 
nest. The eggs are normal. A large flock of Starlings, 
which was presumably checked on its way north by the 
wintry weather, seems to have disbanded here during the 
last week of April and competition for nesting-places has 
been most keen. There are several semi-open nests in ivy 
(fairly closely clipped) on the walls of the house. 
T. M. SavaGe ENGLISH. 
[Mr. H. S. Gladstone (Birds of Dumfriesshire, p. 107) refers to 
a similar case at Corrie Common, near Lockerbie, where half- 
a-dozen nests built of straw and rough litter, like a House- 
Sparrow's, may be seen in one clump of Portugal laurels. 
Semi-open nests inivy are of fairly frequent occurrence. Mr. 
8. Lewis (Zool. 1899, p. 370) also records colonies of Starlings 
breeding on branches of fir trees in Burnt Wood, Emborough, 
near Wells.—F. C. R. JouRDAW. | 
NESTING OF THE MARSH-WARBLER IN DORSET. 
I xnow of no published record of the nesting of the Marsh- 
Warbler (Acrocephalus palustris) in Dorset, so the following 
facts are of interest :—Mr. A. W. Champernowne, of Sidbury, 
found three pairs of birds breeding in the River Yeo Valley, 
between Sherborne and Bradford Abbas, in 1897, and dis- 
covered two nests. This is probably the first record for 
Dorset. I have lately seen a nest and eggs of this species 
taken about the year 1908 in the south-west of Dorset. My 
informant found the species nesting in the same locality 
again the following year. This year, 1917, I went to this 
locality on June 8th and found the birds in two withy beds, 
the males singing their unmistakable song, and anxious 
and demonstrative when their haunts were invaded. The 
bed in each case contained a tangled mass of undergrowth, 
and I did not succeed in finding the nests which were 
almost certainly there. F. L. BLaTHwaytT. 
