NOTES. 81 



and ending with a burst of high-pitched, very clear and dis- 

 tinct, fluty notes. During two visits to the Azores I found 

 several clutches of eggs of the Blackcap towards quite the end 

 of May (e.g., May 29th), and I believe the time of nesting of 

 the Azorean Blackcap to be very much the same as ours, if 

 anything a little later. 



In connection with the remarks you make as to the well- 

 known fact of birds resorting year after year to the same 

 nesting site, it may also be of interest to state that a pair of 

 Pied Wagtails have nested yearly within a yard or two of 

 the same spot in some ivy surrounding the billiard-room of 

 a house near Windsor for the last eighteen or nineteen years. 



For the last seven years I can vouch for this myself, and, 

 in addition, have seen and handled during these seven years 

 three young Cuckoos which have been reared by them ; one 

 in 1903, one in 1904, and the last this summer. It is quite 

 possible that during these seven years there may have been 

 other Cuckoos' eggs laid or hatched, as for two or three years 

 I unfortunately did not take the trouble to examine the nest. 



Here then we have almost certain evidence of the same 

 " branch " of this Wagtail family occupying the same nesting 

 site, but, in addition, it seems highly probable that the same 

 Cuckoo or its descendants remained faithful to it in so far as 

 they probably returned yearly to visit the nest. 



Percy R. Lowe. 



LARGE BROOD OF REED-WARBLERS. 

 On June 12th a friend and I found a Reed- Warbler's (A. 

 streperus) nest containing six young, built amongst dead 

 reeds in a dyke near Southminster. Five is an uncommon 

 clutch, and I have never seen or heard of six before. 



D. H. Meares. 



[Clutches of six eggs are very rare in the case of the Reed- 

 Warbler, which generally lays four, occasionally five eggs. I 

 took one on June 20th, 1907, at Sudbury, Derbyshire, but 

 have never found another. Mr. F. Norgate, however, told 

 me that he once took a clutch of six, and I have seen one or 

 two reputed sets in other collections. — F. C. R. J.] 



ARRIVAL OF MARTINS AT THEIR BREEDING 



HAUNTS. 

 I was struck during the latter end of May by the absence 

 in this village (Hemel Hempstead) of the House Martins 

 (Chelidon urbica), which usually breed in some numbers on 



