232 BRITISH BIRDS. 



useful yearly Report on this subject. The spring-migration 

 presented unusual features owing to the extraordinary weather 

 which ended in the great snowstorm in England in April. 

 The result to Scotland, where the weather appears to have 

 been normal, was that for three weeks the stream of migration 

 was arrested, while a remarkable inrush of overdue migrants 

 took place in the last days of April and the first days of May ; 

 furthermore, a number of summer visitors were noted as being 

 scarce. Only ten Willow-Wrens were reported at all for April, 

 but they were generally reported from May 1st to 3rd. 

 Sedge-Warblers and Spotted Flycatchers, but especially the 

 former, were reported from several districts as very scarce. 

 Only two Swallows were reported before April 26th, while 

 the arrival of the Sand-Martin was chiefly observed from 

 April 27th to May 7th. 



The autumn was remarkable for very large rushes of 

 Redwings during October and great movements of Goldcrests 

 from October 17th to 21st (c/. antea, Vol. II., pp. 232-3). 



The following interesting facts may be quoted from the 

 Report : — At Beith a Blackbird reared two broods in the 

 same nest ; at Scotscraig a Robin constantly fed a young 

 Blackbird just fledged ; a Turtle- Dove appeared at the Flannan 

 Islands on October 3rd ; an Eared Grebe (Podicipes nigricollis) 

 was got at Helensburgh in January. 



Marsh - Warblers' Nests with Cuckoos' Eggs in 

 Buckinghamshire. — Mr. Graham W. Kerr records (Zool., 

 1909, p. 397) that he found a nest of Acrocephalus palustris 

 on June 14th in a very dense nettle-bed, twelve yards from 

 the river near Magna Charta Island, in the parish of Wrays- 

 bury. The nest contained two well-marked eggs of the 

 Marsh-Warbler and one of a Cuckoo. On June 30th Mr. E. 

 Pettitt, of Wraysbury, found another nest in the same nettle- 

 bed. This contained four eggs of the Marsh- Warbler and one 

 of the Cuckoo, the latter being of a different type to that 

 found in the first nest (cf. supra, p. 185). 



Ruff in Ireland. — A -Reeve (Machetes pugnax) was shot 

 on August 30th near Daleybann Lough, Bellacorick, co. Mayo 

 (Robert Warren, Zool., 1909, p. 399), and a Ruff was shot on 

 September 23rd at Inch, co. Donegal (D. C. Campbell, Irish 

 Nat, 1909, p. 243). 



Spoonbill in Devon. — A specimen of Platalea leucorodia 

 is reported (Field, Nov. 6, 1909, p. 842) to have been shot near 

 the estuary of the Taw and To nidge, North Devon, in the 

 last week of October. 



