OCCASIONAL NOTES. 365 
case, as | was much inclined to be sceptical. He tells me that in visiting 
one of his cottagers this spring he saw a Siskin in a cage, and the woman 
told him that it was one of five that were taken from a nest by her eldest son, 
a trustworthy lad and one of his choir. The boy said that the previous 
June (1879) he found two nests, both with young, one built in the fork of a 
maple tree and the other in that of a hornbeam. One nest was in a rough 
high boundary fence to one of Mr. Burney’s fields; the other not far off in 
a high field-hedge which had been left uncut for some years. Of nest 
No. 1 his mother sold four birds; of nest No. 2 only three were reared, of 
which Mr. Burney has one, one escaped, and one was drowned. One nest 
went to London, and the other was thrown away by the boy’s mother. In 
a second note, in answer to another of mine asking him to describe the bird 
fully to me, he has done so, and the bird he has is clearly a hen Siskin. 
I told him I would send you a line on the subject when satisfied on the 
matter.—Rosert H. Mirrorp (Weston Lodge, Hampstead). 
Burron’s Sxua.—I do not think I gave you the length of the projecting 
tail-feathers of the Buffon’s Skuas which I got last autumn, and mentioned 
in ‘The Zoologist’ for January last (p. 18). The feathers in the tail of 
one, which I suppose to be a male bird, are I think unusually long, being 
eight inches and a quarter longer than the ordinary tail, while those of the 
other bird project six inches and a half. J. Russell told me recently that a 
gunner at the Teesmouth shot seven Buffon’s Skuas on the 14th October, 
at the time the extraordinary flight occurred, and “ made a pie of them !”— 
T. H. Nexson (North Bondgate, Bishop Auckland). 
Sate or Great Avuxs’ Eecs.—On the 2nd July last two eggs of this 
rare bird (now believed to be extinct) were offered for sale by Mr. Stevens, 
at his auction-rooms in King Street, Covent Garden, and, as might be 
supposed, attracted a large attendance of naturalists. These eggs, of which 
no history has as yet been discovered, formed part of an old private 
collection which was recently sold by auction in Edinburgh, and the whole 
of which was bought, we understand, by Mr. Small, bird-preserver, of that 
city, for thirty-two shillings! On being re-sold in London these two eggs 
alone realised respectively one hundred pounds and one hundred and two 
guineas! After a spirited competition both were knocked down to Lord 
Lilford. Photographs have been prepared of them, and may be obtained, 
we believe, through Mr. Stevens, 38, King Street, Covent Garden. 
Tue Crirrs at FLamRonoucH.—On July 17th I visited the breeding- 
places of the sea-birds at Flamborough Head, on the grand limestone cliffs 
between Bempton and Speeton. I had not seen the birds here for more 
than three years, and was glad to find them extremely plentiful. I thought 
them much increased in number since 1877, and the veteran climber, George 
