368 BRITISH BIRDS. 



BLACK REDSTART IN WILTSHIRE. 



A yotjng male Black Redstart {Ruticilla titys) was first seen 

 about midday on March 13th in my garden at Downton, 

 Salisbury. It was about all the afternoon until 5 p.m., which 

 was the last time at which it was seen. I see on referring to 

 the Rev. A. C. Smith's " Birds of Wiltshire" (1887, p. 148) 

 that it has twice been recorded in the county. As it is a 

 species whose migratory movements are of great interest, I 

 venture to report the occurrence. 



Frank Penrose. 



ACTIONS OF THE ALPINE ACCENTOR. 

 In reply to your correspondent, Miss F. Russell (p. 330), I 

 may say that I have observed this species closely in my 

 aviaries during the past year. 



Altogether I have had six individuals, and at the present 

 time I have three. I have seen this Accentor walk, but only 

 on the rarest occasions, and then only for a very short distance. 

 Its usual means of progression is a hop ; it never runs. It 

 is singular that other observers besides Mrs. Russell have stated 

 that it walks. The Snow-Finch (F. nivalis), a bird found in the 

 same districts and which also spends much of its time on the 

 ground, runs with some rapidity and very seldom hops. 



W. E. Teschemaker. 



NUTHATCH ON THE GREAT ORME'S HEAD, NORTH 

 WALES. 



There can be no loophole for doubt but that the bird which 

 a friend of mine saw on a southern slope of the Great Orme's 

 Head in the spring of 1907 was a Nuthatch (Sitta ccesia). His 

 description of the distribution of colours on the bird's plumage, 

 and of its behaviour, particularly the peculiarity, all its 

 own, the bird has of applying its full strength into each stroke 

 and working as it does from the hip-joint, so that the whole 

 weight of its body is added to the blow delivered at the object 

 engaging its close attention, conclusively proves a correct 

 identification. Not only is the occurrence of the Nuthatch on 

 the Great Orme an unprecedented one, but it is also of great 

 interest, mainly, perhaps, because the bird is very rare through- 

 out the whole of North Wales but also from the fact that it 

 was in February, 1907, that I saw my first example of this 

 species in Creuddyn (of which the Great Orme forms a part), 

 prior to which it had not apparently been recorded from any- 

 where within a radius of twenty-seven miles. 



R. W. Jones. 



