OTES 



THE VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF CHESHIRE. 

 I have in preparation and almost ready for publication a 

 vertebrate fauna of the county of Cheshire. I should be 

 greatly obliged if any readers of British Birds who have 

 notes on the avifauna of the county, which might be suitably 

 incorporated in the work, would communicate with me, at 

 Brentwood, Bowdon, Cheshire. 



T. A. Coward. 



THE ORNITHOLOGY OF SUSSEX. 



As I desire to make my forthcoming work on the ornithology 

 of Sussex as perfect as possible, I shall deem it an act of 

 courtesy if any of your readers conversant with the bird-life 

 of that county will let me know (1) whether they know of or 

 have ever found a breeding haunt of the Wood-Lark there, 

 and (2) if the Whinchat is ever at all numerous. I have now 

 worked Sussex hard since December, 1903, but it was not 

 until this last spring that I found a breeding haunt of the 

 Wood-Lark. I saw three birds there and found one nest. 

 As to the Whinchat, I consider it a local and rare breeder in 

 Sussex, though it comes in fairly well on migration, especially 

 in some years. On the other hand, some springs I hardly ever 

 see it. Of course I know a few — but they are very few — 

 districts where it nests annually. 



I should also be grateful if any of your readers could supply 

 records, since 1891, of the following birds occurring in Sussex, 

 or even before that date, provided that the fact was not 

 notified in Borrer's " Birds of Sussex " : Gyr-Falcon, Green- 

 land Falcon, Tengmalm's Owl, Scops Owl, Snowy Owl. 

 Eagle-Owl, Red-winged Starling, Little Bunting, Crested 

 Lark, Short-toed Lark, Dipper, Black-throated Thrush, 

 White's Thrush, Alpine Accentor, Bearded Tit, Pallas's Sand- 

 Grouse, Black Grouse [when was the last authentic nest in 

 Sussex ?], Crane, Great Bustard [my latest record is circa 

 1880], Little Ringed Plover, Bonaparte's Sandpiper, Buff- 

 breasted Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Gull-billed Tern, 

 Sooty Tern, Bewick's Swan, Grey Lag-Goose, Ivory-Gull, 

 Iceland Gull, Glaucous Gull, Buffon's Skua, Fulmar Petrel. 

 Manx Shearwater, Slavonian Grebe, Eared Grebe, and Shag. 



I have very few notices of the Ruff ; and I should like to 

 know if any of your correspondents have ever known or 



