NOTES. 31 



kerchief on the end of a 20-ft. salmon rod and went to the planta- 

 tion. I started where the trees are thinly planted, and where 

 there is much white grass, and waving my flag over the plants I 

 walked down the side of the piece, and soon flushed a Short - 

 eared Owl, which flew into a big tree and watched me. When 

 I got near him he flew round, and settled in a big ash 

 near where I started to beat. I find the male is slimmer and 

 lighter in plumage than the female. I turned and took a piece 

 back, and when I turned again for a third beat he left the tree 

 and came circling round over my head, calling " Keii, keii." 

 When I had gone about twenty yards further another Owl rose 

 about three yards to my left, and on looking I found a nest 

 at the foot of a small Scotch fir with eight eggs upon a thickish 

 bed of dry grasses. The eggs were not in a cluster, but rather 

 scattered. The nest was nine inches each way and two-and-a- 

 half inches thick. I need hardly say that I was full of dehght, 

 for I had never seen the nest and eggs of this bird before, and 

 they are the first ever found in this county, j ^Yhit^^er 



EIDERS OFF SOUTH DEVON IN APRIL. 

 On April 22nd, off Bolt Head, and at the entrance of the 

 creek running past Salcombe up to Kingsbridge, South Devon, 

 I noticed a small flock of Eider Ducks {Somateria mollissima). 

 Their presence so far south at this time of year seems rather 

 remarkable. The explanation may be the extraordinary 

 weather we have just been experiencing, of which the birds 

 were the forerunners, as the snow followed next day. The 

 wind had been in the east and north-east, but changed that 

 day to north-west. j^ g^ Smith. 



STOCK-DOVE NESTING ON BUILDINGS. 

 W^iTH reference to the Rev. F. L. Blathwayt's note on the 

 nesting of the Stock-Dove [C. oenas) on Lincoln Minster, it 

 may be of interest to record that during the latter part of 

 March, 1907, I frequently heard a Stock-Dove cooing in the 

 Close at Winchester ; and on April 1st I watched a pair of 

 these birds flying about the Cathedral, and twice saw one of 

 them enter a hole in the masonry, high up on the Cathedral wall. 

 In my experience the Stock-Dove is a bird which has of 

 late years become commoner in many localities, and perhaps 

 it is developing that taste for " town hfe " which is now so 

 noticeable in the Wood-Pigeon. -g -g j^iviere 



[We think it will be found that Stock-Doves frequently 

 nest on buildings. — Eds.] 



