188 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xv. 



a party of about a dozen on the 22nd near Skinbiirness, 

 Silloth (W. Nichol), and another of about thirty to forty 

 birds near Stanwix, CarHsle, on the 23rd. L. E. Hope. 



A SMALL flock of Waxwings appeared at the Llanerch, Church- 

 stoke, on 2ist November, 1921, and remained in the neighbour- 

 hood for several days. This place is on the borders of Shrop- 

 shire and Montgomerj^shire. H. E. Forrest. 



ABNORMAL CLUTCH OF KESTREL'S EGGS. 



On May 15th, 1921, I flushed a Kestrel {Falco t. tinnunculus) 

 out of a cliff within a mile of Knighton (Radnorshire), and 

 on climbing up to the nest I found that it contained eighi; 

 eggs. The Kestrel is a scarce bird in the neighbourhood, 

 and during my seventeen years residence at Knighton I have 

 never known a Kestrel's nest in this cliff, so that there i'^ 

 no likelihood of this being a case where two hen birds were 

 using the same nest. Moreover, all the eight eggs are very 

 similar and appear to have been laid by the same bird. 



0. R. Owen. 



[Clutches of seven eggs are decidedly rare in this county, 

 and I only know of two other definite records of eight eggs 

 besides that given above. In 1906, Mr. C. E. Wright reported 

 a set of eight from Northampton, and Mr. W. H. Turle took 

 another similar clutch in Hants {Birds of Hants, p. 185). 

 Nine eggs were found in a nest on the ground at Ruston, 

 Norfolk, by the Rev. M. C. H. Bird {ZooL, 1895, p. 97). 



F. C. R. JOURDAIN.] 



KESTRELS' UNUSUAL NESTING-SITE AND LARGE 



CLUTCH. 



While going over some old bird-notes I had recalled to 

 memory a very interesting and unusual nesting-site of a pair 

 of Kestrels (F. t. tinnunculus). 



The place was a wild moorland district in upper Lanarkshire 

 and the nest was shown me early in July 1892. The site 

 was a hole in the wall of a disused lime-kiln, about five feet 

 from the ground, beside the arch where the lime must have 

 been taken out by wagons. In reality the nest was only 

 on a level with the surrounding moor, as the egress from the 

 kiln was low and water -logged. It contained seven eggs, 

 which were lying on the bare earth, about two feet from the 

 entrance. They were of a beautiful red type, almost blood- 

 red in fact, but on trying to blow one of them, I found it 



