100 BRITISH BIRDS. 



was never seen in that dale until very recent years. Five 

 years ago there was, to my surprise, a pair of the birds ; 

 at the beginning of June this year Redshanks were so 

 numerous and noisy as to produce the illusion that I was 

 on a Cumberland marsh. The addition to the avian Ufe 

 of the dale was very pleasing. 



T. Harrison. 



■X- ^ ^ 



Lesser Redpoll Nesting in Middlesex. — Lt.-Col. H. 

 Meyrick records that he has found two nests of the Lesser 

 Redpoll [Linota rufescens) on Hampstead Heath this year, 

 and that he suspected them of breeding there last year {ZooL, 

 1908, p. 227). 



Little Owl in Wiltshire. — An example of Athene noctua 

 was shot near Avebury in November, 1907, and is now in the 

 Marlborough College Museum {Rep. Marl Coll. N.H. Soc, 

 1908, p. 76). This may be a forerunner of a still greater 

 extension of this bird in a south-westerly direction from 

 Lilford than has yet been traced (c/. ante, Vol. I., p. 335 

 et seq.), or it may have been liberated locally. The members 

 of the College Natural History Society would do well to make 

 a search for the Little Owl in the neighbourhood. 



Scops Owl in Cumberland. — A specimen of a Scops Owl 

 {Scops giu) is reported by Mr. P. W. Parkin (in whose 

 possession the bird is) to have been shot on November 6th, 

 1907, at Broomrigg, near Armathwaite, by Captain W. H. 

 Parkin {Field, 13, vi., 08, p. 982). 



Bittern in Yorkshire. — A Common Bittern {Botaurus 

 stellaris) was seen by the watcher at Kilnsea, Holderness, 

 Yorkshire, on May 6th last (R. Fortune, Nat, 1908, p. 202). 



Gadwall in Somerset. — A male was shot near Bridgwater 

 on February 10th, 1908 (H. Whistler, i^^e/c?, 20, vi., 08,p. 1030). 



Wood - Pigeon Nesting on a House. — Two Wood- 

 Pigeons are said by Mr. F. Mansell to have nested and reared 

 their young on a window-sill in Highbury this year {Field, 

 20, VI., 08, p. 1030). 



Increase of Terns Nesting in Ireland. — Mr. A. 

 Williams writes to the " Irish NaturaUst " (1908, pp. 119-122) 

 that protection has greatly increased the Gulls and Terns in 

 CO. Dublin. At Malahide Island the numbers of Common 

 and Arctic Terns nesting is described as being incalculable. 

 This colony a few years ago numbered only a couple of pairs. 

 A rough idea of the number of birds at the present time is 

 given by the fact that Mr. Williams counted 211 nests, but 

 his search was by no means exhaustive. 



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