46 BRITISH BIRDS. [ VOL. 7 
(Cuculus canorus). I did not visit the nest again until dusk — 
on the evening of the 16th, when I found the nest con- 
tained one Cuckoo’s egg, two eggs of the Meadow-Pipit 
and a newly-hatched young one which I never examined, 
and presumed was a young Pipit. On the early morning 
of the 17th the nest still had the same contents, the egg 
of the Cuckoo being unhatched. Having to go away 
from home on this date, I asked Mr. Fred Jowett, to 
whom [I had shown the nest, if he would look at it in the 
evening. On the 18th, Mr. Jowett told me he had visited 
the nest and found all the eggs—one Cuckoo’s and two 
Meadow-Pipit’s—lying outside the nest, and that on his 
replacing the eggs in the nest they were thrown out again, 
so that it was evident that the newly-hatched young one, 
instead of being a Meadow-Pipit as we had assumed, was 
really a Cuckoo. Although it was now dusk, I determined 
to go and ascertain for myself, and on reaching the nest I 
immediately saw that the young bird, which had grown 
immensely in two days, was a Cuckoo. So it is evident that 
a second Cuckoo’s egg had been laid between my finding 
the nest on the 9th and my visit to it on the 16th, and this 
egg must have been laid when the other Cuckoo’s egg was 
in an advanced stage of incubation. I feel fairly certain 
both eggs were laid by the same Cuckoo, since the unhatched 
egg was very similar to the one in the nest on the 9th, which 
was of a type less broadly ovate than that usually found 
in_ this district. EK. P. BUTTERFIELD. 
COMMON SCOTER IN WARWICKSHIRE. 
Recorps of the Common Scoter (Ocdemia n. nigra) in 
Warwickshire, are, I believe, sufficiently uncommon to make 
the following occurence worthy of noting:—On April 28th, 
1917, I saw five, two males and three females, resting on the 
water in Sutton Park. Their visit was brief, as they had 
disappeared when I returned two hours later, and they were 
not there on the previous evening. B. A. CARTER. 
[The Scoter not infrequently occurs on inland waters in 
April when it is on passage, but there seem to be few records 
for Warwickshire. Mr. R. F. Tomes (Vict. Hist. Warwick.) 
states that he has met with it three times and that it has 
occurred at Sutton, and he gives the county status of the 
bird as ‘“‘ very rare.”—Ebs. | 
“TWIN” NESTS OF LAPWING. 
Mr. Wit11aM Bates, of Macclesfield, writes me to say that 
whilst on Bosley Minns early this spring he found two nests 
of Lapwings (Vanellus vanellus), both perfectly built, the 
