378 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
spot, a few yards from where it rose, I found a nest with two eggs, 
which were certainly those of the Sky Lark; one was sucked, the 
other was sound. Had the Cuckoo done this? I suspect so.* 
A week after I went again to look; the sucked and broken egg was 
gone, and three others, all sound, were there. If the Cuckoo was the 
culprit, it was probably frightened by me, and had not been again. 
On May 31st 1 saw a Blue Tit’s nest in a lamp-post, and was 
informed the same pair had nested there for three years. The 
entrance was at the top of the hollow iron post, full under the 
light of the gas. The persistency with which the Starlings drop 
their eggs, at Bexhill, on the edge of the cliffs where they breed, 
is very remarkable. I found nearly a dozen on different occasions, 
and all near the same spot. All but one were broken and yelkless, 
which I imagine must be the work of mice, as I hardly think the 
old Starlings would doit. The first Lapwing’s eggs noted were on 
March 31st. Great numbers are collected in the neighbourhood 
of Hastings, and sold by the fishmongers and poulterers; yet, 
although so many were taken, the price never dropped below 834d. 
Fresh eggs were taken up to the first week in June. A nest of 
four eggs taken on June 3rd contained two fresh and two slightly 
sat upon. At this time fully-developed young Pied Wagtails were 
about, with tails as long as their parents, from which they could 
only be distinguished by colour. 
There are some birds whose absence from St. Leonards is 
remarkable. I never saw the Redstart (cy. Knox, ‘Orn. Ramb. in © 
Sussex,’ p. 192) in my walks, though keeping a particular look out 
for it; and I never heard the Corn Crake, which I could hardly have 
failed to do had there been any in the neighbourhood. Amongst 
the numerous little parties of Pied and Yellow Wagtails, the most 
careful inspection failed to detect either the White or the Grey- 
headed Wagtail; yet these well-marked species are not infrequent 
at Brighton. The Redbacked Shrike was late in arriving, but soon 
became common. Its favourite victim for impalement seemed to be 
the large yellow-tailed bumble-bee. I found two of these insects, 
about fifty yards apart, on the spikes of large dead brambles, and 
still alive. I found others last summer at Northrepps on dead 
thorns. 
* The Cuckoo may have visited the Lark’s nest merely for the purpose of 
depositing her own egg therein, and the broken Lark’s egg may have been sucked 
by a field mouse.—Ep. 
