VOL. vm.] NOTES. 49 



on April 23rd, 1894. In Maidenhead Thicket, on May 

 17th, 1914, I found the nest of a Blackcap {Sylvia a. atri- 

 capilla) with young, whicli I judged from touch — the nest 

 \\as in briars above my head — to be four or five days old. 

 I did not discover how many there were, but laying must 

 have been completed by about the end of April. I found 

 the nest of a Land-Rail (Crex crex) \\ith eleven eggs at 

 Llangadfan, Montgomeryshire, on May 10th ; the first egg 

 \\ ould have been laid on April 30tli. The fine, hot weather 

 in the second half of April seems to have made the migrant 

 birds begin nesting very soon after arrival, as Mas the case 

 to a greater extent in the famous sunny year of 1893. In 

 that year, at Cromhall, Gloucestershire, I foimd the first 

 Whitethroat's egg on April 26th, and the first Nightingale's 

 on April 30th ; the Chiflfchaff also laid some days before the 

 end of the month. On April 13th, 1902, I found a Stone- 

 Curlew's nest with one egg, on the Berkshire Do^\^ls. 



A. COLLETT. 



[The dates of nesting for Chiffchaff and Blackcap are both 

 remarkably early, and should be compared with previous 

 Qotes on this subject {antea, p. 16). The date for a full 

 clutch of Land-Rail is earlier than any of which I have 

 records, though Mr. W. Farren has met with a full clutch 

 in Cambridgeshire on May 15th. The date for the first 

 egg of the Stone-Curlew is also five days earlier than the 

 usual time for the first laid eggs in the south of England. 

 Whitethroats and Nightingales very rarely begin to laj^ 

 before the beginning of May. — F. C. R. Jourdain.] 



COCK SPARROW ASSISTING TO INCUBATE. 



Last year I found a cock House-Sparrow (Passer d. domesticus) 

 assisting to incubate, as already recorded (Vol. VII., p. 52). 

 riiis year several of my nesting-boxes were taken by House- 

 Sparrows, and I frequently put the cock bird off during 

 incubation. I caught the cock sitting on one nest (May 8th) 

 ind dissected him to make doubly certain. I think the 

 3ock only takes part in the work during the day-time, and 

 tlien only to a limited extent. J. H. Owen. 



INCURSION OF WAXWINGS. 



Bedfordshire. — One between Markyate and Dunstable on 



April 15th, 1914 (W. Rowan). 

 Lancashire. — Two in a garden at Mariebourne, Wigan, for 



several days in March (J. Few). 



