40 HKITISH BIRDS. [vol. xiv. 



early for England, although in Ireland the normal date for 

 first clutches is early in April, and a set of 5 eggs is recorded 

 on April ist, 1890 (A. Ellison, Zool., 1890, p. 461). Early 

 dates have, however, been occasionally recorded from Eng- 

 land and Wales ; thus, young were already hatched in a 

 nest at Meol, Salop, on April i6th, 1904 {Rep. Caradoc & 

 Severn V. F.C., 1904), and young flew from a nest near 

 Aberystwyth, on April 30th, 1902 (J. H. Salter, Zool., 1904, 



p. 67). — F. C. R. JOURDAIN.] 



WALL-CREEPER IN DORSET. 



A Wall-Creeper {Tichodroma nmraria) was seen by Mr. E. P. 

 Gundry, on April 24th, 1920, at Chilfrome, eight miles N.W. of 

 Dorchester. It was remarkably tame, and the observer, 

 who is familiar with our wild birds, got within six feet of 

 it, as it was climbing round an old elm tree, and especially 

 noticed the crimson shoulders and slightly curved long bill. 

 He at once identified the species by referring to Thorburn's 

 British Birds, and it is safe to say that at such close range 

 there could have been no mistake. It eventually flew away 

 with another bird, which seemed to come from the other 

 side of the tree and was apparently of the same species. In 

 September 1 901 an example was seen some thirty-two miles 

 farther north, in Somerset {British Birds, XII., p. 185), and 

 as the species has straggled to N. France and Alderney, I 

 venture to suggest that the Dorset and Somerset examples 

 had arrived by the Channel Islands and Portland route. 

 This is the first record for Dorset. F. L. Blathwayt. 



LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE BREEDING AT UNUSUAL 



HEIGHT. 

 The caprices of this bird in nest-sites are endless. I have 

 seen a nest twenty feet from the ground in a spruce over- 

 hanging a Surrey lane ; another near Falmouth about thirty- 

 five or forty feet aloft in the fork of an ash, with no foliage 

 within yards of it ; a third, equally exposed and nearly as 

 high, in an oak at Park Place, Henley-on-Thames. The two 

 last nests were in main forks of large trunks, and resembled 

 chance accumulations of lichen, almost invisible from below 

 and only revealed by the parent birds' solicitude. Such sites 

 may be commoner than one supposes. H. M. Wallis. 



With reference to Dr. Ticehurst's note {antea, p. 18), in 

 March 1907 I watched a pair of Long-tailed Titmice 

 building a nest in the fork of a branch of willow tree about 

 sixty feet above ground. Until the leaves came out this nest 



