118 BRITISH BIRDS. 



stream. The hollow was about four inches in diameter, and 

 the nest was placed about sixteen inches from the entrance. 

 It was shallow, cup-shaped, the materials used being damp 

 moss with a lining of leaves, and the usual dome, owing to the 

 want of room, was entirely dispensed with. 



2. Blue Titmouse (Parus cmruleus\ — The site chosen was 

 in a Scottish fir-tree, about twenty-six feet from the ground. 

 Seen from below it looked just like a small nest of a House- 

 Sparrow. It was built against the trunk and supported by 

 two small branches, the materials used being white withered 

 grass, lined profusely with cow's hair, a few horse-hairs, and 

 one or two feathers. It was cup-shaped, and a little bulky at 

 the foundation. 



3. House-Sparrow (Passer domesticus). — The site chosen 

 was a hawthorn hedge about fifteen feet high, and instead of 

 the nest being well out of reach, it was only three feet from 

 the ground. It was the usual roofed nest, built with withered 

 grass and lined with feathers. 



All three nests contained quite normal eggs. 



Walter Stewart. 



LAND-BIRDS NESTING IN HOLES. 



Relative to the note on this subject in the " Irish Naturalist " 

 quoted in the last number of British Birds, it may be of 

 interest to state that in May of the present year I saw a nest 

 of the Wood-Lark in Norfolk built in a deep rabbit-scrape on 

 bare, flat warren, and at least eighteen inches from the 

 entrance. 



Norman Gilroy. 



STARLINGS' NESTING SITES. 



In the last number of British Birds Mr. F. W. Headley 

 records the finding of a Starling's nest in the wooden casing of 

 the barrier of the Haileybury rifle-range. The point, however, 

 which struck me as of most interest, was that the birds actually 

 removed and carried to a distance a number of flints in order 

 to make room for their nest. A letter in the " Field " for 

 July 3rd last, headed " Odd Site for a Starling's Nest," 

 records a nest situated in a split in a rock on the side of an 

 open drain on the golf-links at Kirkwall. In both of these 

 cases the actual site of the nest is not very unusual, for, in 

 truth, the, Starling will make use of any hole or cranny that is 

 at all suitable to its requirements. A lengthy list of various 

 nest-sites will be found in Yarrell's " British Birds," and in 



