404 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
as they thought, a Greenfinch’s nest built in a fir tree. Immediately he 
began to ascend the tree, out flew a Crossbill. The nest, which was built 
half-way up the tree where a branch joined the trunk, was larger and flatter 
than that of the Greenfinch. It consisted of a foundation of small twigs, 
lined with leaves, dried grass, and hair. It contained four eggs, two of 
which are now in my possession. — WALTER Rane (Leeds). 
Nesting or Monracu’s Harrter.—The nest described by Mr. Raine 
(p. 862) is formed of very different materials from the one found on our 
downs by Mr. Howard Saunders in May, 1875, and which was described 
in a note on the habits and change of plumage of one of the young I had 
in confinement for six or seven weeks (Zool. 4672). Mr. Raine says that 
the nest, according to his informant, Mr. Widdas, was “ two feet above the 
ground,” whereas the nest found here was on the ground. It was, he 
remarks, ‘composed chiefly of rushes and other aquatic plants”; other 
materials used were cow-hair, moss, grass, &e. Now, with the exception 
of grass, the nést discovered here had none of these materials, being chiefly 
built of fern-stalks and heath. The egg is said to differ slightly from 
others in Mr. Raine’s collection, which leads me to think and suggest that 
possibly the nest found by Mr. Raine’s informant in 1875 may have been 
that of the Common Harrier, whose nest Macgillivray says is raised 
‘a little from the ground”; and, according to Morris, the nest of the Hen 
Harrier “is of considerable height, sometimes as much as a foot and 
a half,” and is composed of sticks, sedge, reeds, flags, &c. Though 
Mr. Raine’s new specimen differs slightly from other eggs in his collection, 
he does not say whether it is in size, shape, colour, or texture.—HEnRyY 
Haprievp (Ventnor, Isle of Wight). 
GoLDEN-EYE Duck AND GreEN SANDPIPER IN NorFOLK IN JuLy.— 
On July 31st I bought an old female Golden-eye Duck in Norwich fish- 
market. ‘The poor thing had been undoubtedly killed in Norfolk, though 
the salesman could not tell me where. As is well known, the presence 
of such birds in the summer is not always an indication that they are 
breeding. Every Norfolk naturalist must have seen the Green Sandpiper 
occasionally in July, yet the fact of their breeding has never been proved, 
though often suspected. During the greater part of the present summer 
a pair have frequented a pool at Cawston, but their nest, though searched 
for, has not been found, and my own conviction is that they have not bred 
there.—J. H. Gurney, Jun. (Northrepps, Norwich). 
HawFiXch BREEDING NeaR Lexps.—I have to record the discovery of 
a nest of the Hawfinch, Coccothraustes vulgaris, between Coble Hall and 
Roundhbay, during the spring of 1878. It was placed high up in a holly 
tree, and reminded one of the Ring Dove's flat platform of a nest, consisting 
of a foundation of small sticks and twigs, lined with roots, hay, &e. It 
didi 
