VOL. viiL] NOTES. 145 



number of family parties which I saw on the Garrison Hill, 

 St. Mary's, during the latter part of June and the first 

 week in July. The only brood which I kept under observa- 

 tion left the nest on May 14th. On April 29th and 30th 

 there were enormous flocks on St. Agnes on migration. 



H. W. Robinson. 



TREE-PIPIT NESTING IN THE SCILLY ISLES. 



In their paper on the " Birds of Scilly " in the Zoolocjint 

 (1906), Messrs. Clarke and Rodd state (p. 247) that the Tree- 

 Pipit (Anthus t. trivialis) has been occasionally observed 

 in autumn on Tresco and St. Mary's, once on St. Martin's, 

 and twice on Bryher, and an adult male was found dead on 

 St. Agnes early in June, 1902. They state, further, that 

 the bird is probably often overlooked, and may be a regular 

 autumn-visitor. 



On July 2nd, 1914, I found a nest of this species contain- 

 ing four young near Old Town, St. Mary's, and as I later 

 received a leg with ring from one of the brood, it would 

 seem that the whole brood fell victims to one of the numerous 

 cats which are a perfect pest on this and other of the 

 inhabited islands. It is thus possible that the bird found on 

 St. Agnes in June, 1902, may have been breeding. I may 

 also mention that I procured an adult male on St. Mary's 

 on April 19th, 1914. H. W. Robinson. 



LATE BREEDING OF YELLOW WAGTAIL. 



On July 12th, 1914, when a meadow in Tatham, north 

 Lancashire, was being cut, a nest of young Yellow Wagtails 

 {Motacilla f. rayi) was cut through. On August 1st in a 

 pasture-field I saw a Yellow Wagtail leave a nest containing 

 four incubated eggs. I saw both bird and eggs the following 

 day, but on visiting the nest four days later there were only 

 three eggs and they were quite cold. The next day all the 

 eggs had gone. Most likely these were the same parent 

 birds, as the nests were within fifty yards of each other. 



G. Sanderson. 



[Although as a rule the Yellow Wagtail lays in the latter 

 half of May or early in June and rears only one brood, yet 

 exceptionally it breeds much earlier, and probably where 

 second broods are reared they are the produce of these early 

 nesters. F. S. Mitchell {Birds of Lancashire,.^. 46, 2nd ed.) 

 states that sometimes they begin to sit as early as April 26th, 

 though usually qviite a month later. Nests with eggs were 

 also reported from Denbigh on April 23rd, 1906, and Somerset 



