NOTES. 263 



SHORT-TOED LARK IN SUSSEX. 



Mr. Brazenor, the taxidermist of Lewes Road, Brighton, 

 showed me in the flesh a Short-toed Lark (Alauda brachy- 

 dactyla). It was caught on the Downs to the north of 

 Brighton on November 16th, 1909, curiously enough within a 

 short distance of the place where the American Bittern was 

 taken at the end of October. On dissection the bird proved 

 to be a female. 



Herbert Langton. 



[This bird is now in the possession of Mr. J. B. Nichols, 

 who very kindly showed it to me. — H.F.W.] 



SWIFTS EATING DRONES OF THE HIVE BEE. 



For several years I have noticed that Swifts {Cypselus apus) 

 regularly " hawk " for bees round my hives. Thinking that 

 ^they must be destroying a great many bees, I have from time 

 to time shot some eight Swifts thus employed. On opening 

 these birds I have found in every case that all the perfect 

 bees in their stomachs were drones, and in no case did I find 

 a single worker bee. A specimen which I sent to the editor of 

 this magazine has been examined by Mr. C. J. Gahan of the 

 British Museum, who kindly reports that the contents of the 

 stomach was as follows : Six drones of the common hive-bee, 

 remains of two other small Hymenoptera, about a dozen small 

 Diptera and Aphidm and four small beetles. I at all events 

 am now quite satisfied that the Swifts are beneficial rather 

 than harmful to my hives. Erick Lacey 



RAPID RE-MATING OF THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 



All writers on ornithology have commented on the 

 mysteriously rapid re-mating of the Peregrine Falcon (Falco 

 peregrinus), but the following incident may be worth 

 recording. 



On March 21st, whilst rambling round an out-of-the-way 

 district in a northern shire, I located a pair of Peregrines on 

 a large inland crag, and sitting below I watched them for 

 over an hour, the observation being made particularly 

 interesting from the fact that they were waging warfare on a 

 pair of Ravens which were busily engaged making a new nest, 

 their first having been destroyed by the fall of a big snow- 

 cornice. From what I saw the Ravens were coming off a bad 

 second ! At Easter I was in the district again, and on April 9th 

 I set off with a friend to see if the birds were still there. We 



