204 BRITISH BIRDS. 



to any Crossbill's eggs I have ever seen, the ground colour 

 being blue, almost as blue as in the egg of a Bullfinch, 

 sparingly spotted with dark brown ; one egg had a lilac 

 streak. R- Hamilton Hunter. 



CIRL BUNTING SINGING IN OCTOBER. 

 At noon on October 18th — a dull, muggy morning — I heard 

 a Cirl Bunting in full song at Heath, near Leighton Buzzard. 

 During the quarter of an hour that I waited at the spot, 

 the bird, which was perched on the top of a thorn hedge, 

 sang persistently at intervals of a few seconds. Is not mid- 

 October a late date for this species to be in song ? 



Chas. Oldham. 



LATE NEST OF THE KINGFISHER. 



On October 10th, 1908, I was informed that there was a 

 Kingfisher's nest in the banks of the Wenning, near Bentham, 

 Yorkshire. I went and inspected the nest and found it to 

 contain four young nearly ready to fly. The late date is 

 remarkable, and the very warm weather we have been having 

 may partly account for it. Graham W. Murdoch. 



SCOPS-OWL OFF ABERDEENSHIRE. 



It may be worth while to put on record that I have in my 

 possession a male Scops-Owl {Scops giu), which was captured 

 on a trawler about twenty - five miles off the coast of 

 Aberdeenshire in October, 1900. This bird was in an 

 exhausted state, and although the plumage was in fair 

 condition it was much faded. From this arises another 

 question : What is the nautical hmit within which a bird 

 may be called " British " ? E. R. Paton. 



HONEY-BUZZARD IN SHROPSHIRE. 

 I RECENTLY examined a fine example of the Honey-Buzzard 

 which had been shot in North Shropshire, about the last day 

 of September, 1908. It appears to be a male in its second 

 year, and belongs to the dark-brown form. The last prior 

 record in the county was in August, 1881, when three are 

 said to have been seen near Ludlow, one of which was caught. 



H. E. Forrest. 



GREY PHALAROPE IN SUMMER IN DEVONSHIRE. 



On the morning of May 14th last I was surprised to find a 

 Grey Phalarope {Phalaropus fulicarius) fluttering on a path 

 in my garden (near Sidmouth). The bird was hopelessly 



