1920.] Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 307 



during the afternoon I noted one Branibliiig, one Skylark, 

 more Starlings, and some Storm Petrels. Towards dark 

 eight or nine Black-lieaded Gulls made their appearance 

 and a Heron tried to alight on the ship, which was pitching 

 lieavily, and then drifted to leeward. 



The wireless weather report received the previous night 

 recorded an " anti-cyclone between Iceland and the Faroes.^' 

 Thirty-six hours previously we had experienced a gale from 

 the S.W. lasting two days and nights. 



Early in the morning of 2 November we ran into a very 

 heavy gale from the S.E., and it blew at about sixty miles 

 per hour for about forty-eight hours. 



YourSj etc., 



Whitfield House, W. Raw, M.B.O.U. 



Goathland, Yorks. 



Sir, — Colonel Verner has been corresponding with me 

 with reference to ]\Ir. Jourdain's letter, "The number of 

 eggs laid by the Blackbird in Spain," Avhich appears in the 

 October number of ' The Ibis.' 



In this letter Colonel Verner's name and book on Spain 

 are mentioned. 



He has asked me to write to you and say that since his 

 book, ' ]Nf y life among the Wild Birds in Spain/ was pub- 

 lished he has seen several nests of the Spanish Blackbird 

 containing more than three eggs. 



The first occasion was on 9 May, 1910, when in Colonel 

 Vernei^s company, I found a nest of this species containing 

 four considerably incubated eggs. 



He was much struck by my find and remarked that this 

 was the first occasion that he had seen a nest of the Spanish 

 Blackbird containing more than three eggs during his thirty- 

 five years' experience of the birds of southern Spain. 



On the following day two more nests, each containing 

 four fresh to slightly incubated eggs, were found. 



To the best of my recollection these were the only three 

 Blackbirds' nests found in 1910 and 1911 by me or Colonel 

 Verner with more than three eggs, though a good many were 

 examined. 



