8964 Birds. 
to eight miles or more, and between twenty and thirty miles from the nearest point 
where these birds are usually met with W. W. Boulton. 
Razorbill at Lewes.—A very fine specimen of the razorbill was shot in the Lewes 
Levels, by Mr. Thomas J. Jenner, in January last, during the hard weather.— 
EF. Jenner; West Street, Lewes. 
Abundance of Wild Fowl in Lincolnshire.—On the 16th inst., eleven swans passed 
over Epworth, just above the tops of the houses, and great numbers of ducks, &c., are 
seen daily passing over from the extensive bogs to the west of the above place to the 
marsh lands on the eastern banks of the River Trent. I have been informed 
that 1100 wild fowl have been taken in Mr. Healey’s decoy, near Ashby, during the 
last week or ten days: the ducks taken in this decoy during the months of October, 
November, and December, are almost exclusively mallard, teal, and wigeon; but as 
the new year advances these are joined by many of our rarest ducks, including ruddy 
shieldrake, common shieldrake, shoveller, gargauey, &c. I visited this decoy in Oc- 
tober last, and saw a specimen of the little auk sporting among the ducks in the open 
part of the decoy; I was informed that it would often advance with the ducks to the 
mouth of the pipe, then seemingly not liking its narrow limits suddenly diving, 
re-appearing far down in the open decoy.—Samuel Hudson; Epworth, January 20, 
1864. ' 
Birds’ Nests in December.—Two instances have come to my knowledge of birds 
building during the past mouth in this neighbourhood. One nest came into my 
possession about the middle of December; it had been taken from a ledge ina 
wheat-stack made last autumn, and contained three eggs. These eggs differed 
greatly in ground colour,—one being a light bluish green, the other two pale brownish 
yellow ; but the markings were alike in all three. I showed them to a collector of 
experience in this town, and, as neither of us could feel certain as to what bird they 
were to be referred, I sent them to Mr. Doubleday, who is also unable to decide, 
thinking with us they have characteristics both of the linnet and the greeufinch. The 
nest was somewhat shaken and disarranged when I received it, but it appeared to me 
to be neither as round nor as deep as both those birds usually are ; possibly the un- 
usual situation may account for this. I may say that the person who took the nest 
has much practical knowledge of the habits of birds, and satisfied himself that no 
deception had been practised ; one of the eggs he blew, the other two I saw the con- 
tents of myself: they certainly had not been laid more than a week. The other 
instance I referred to was that of a hedgesparrow ; singular to say, this was also in a 
rick—in this case of beans: it also contained eggs.—W. G. Rawlinson ; Taunton, 
January 1, 1864. 
“ Notes on the Ornithology of Iceland.’—I must trouble you to insert in the 
‘ Zoologist’ a few words from me, in consequence of the form into which you have 
thrown my “ Notes on the Ornithology of Iceland,” extracted by you from the Appendix 
which I contributed to Mr. Baring-Gould’s recently published work, and reprinted in 
your Magazine (Zool. 8935, et seg.). In these notes I strove to compress into 
the smallest space possible all the information which seemed to me of importance 
respecting the different birds enumerated in my list, to which you have done me the 
honour of giving further circulation. Actordingly I doubt if it would be possible for 
any one to make extracts of the particulars I therein gave, and yet preserve my mean- 
ing accurately. This is shown in several instances, of which I will here only specify 
two, With respect to the Greeenland falcon (Falco islandicus, Gmel.), you append 
