30 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
position of the nest might be recorded. The Merlin, in this country, is 
usually found nesting on the ground or in rocks, and what renders the 
present case of greater interest is the fact that the ground all round the 
tree was just of such a character as is usually chosen by the Merlin for 
nesting, showing that the tree could not have been fixed on for want of 
another suitable place. ‘The nest occupied appeared to be a deserted one 
of Corvus corone or C. cornix. Nests of Merlins in trees are not uncommon 
in Lapland. 
Spring Micration or Birps.—In ‘The Zoologist’ for December last 
(p. 513), Mr. Cordeaux, writing on the “ Spring Migration of Birds on the 
East Coast,” says, ‘‘ My impression is that the males of this species (Tree 
Pipit), also the male Willow Wrens, precede the females by some days; we 
do not hear their notes, however, before their mates arrive.” From my 
inability to discriminate the males from the females of the above species, 
except by their song, I am unable to say whether the males do arrive before 
the females. It is, however, certain that the Willow Wrens did not give 
any indication of their presence by their song until the 19th April, although 
the female birds must have arrived a few days earlier, as we received no 
increase of numbers after the 16th. I first heard the Tree Pipit on the 
22nd April, but did not hear it again for at least a week, though the pair 
were to be seen frequently in the locality, the weather being still excessively 
cold. What particularly struck me, as bearing on the point at issue, was 
the absence of the song of the Yellow Wood Wren in all the more open and 
hilly woods during the whole of May, whilst they were in full song in the 
sheltered and low-lying districts on the 20th. This was noticeable both in 
Airedale and Wharfedale. The unusually cold spring of 1877 might, to 
some extent, if not mainly, account for the reticence of our summer migrants 
after their arrival—E. P. P. Burrerrisip (Wilsden). 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
. Linnean Socrery or Lonpon. 
November 15, 1877.— Dr. Gwyn Jurrreys, F.R.S., Vice-President, in 
the chair. 
Messrs. W. Joshua (of Cirencester), W. 8. Lawson, B.A. (of St. Peter's 
College, Cambridge), and the Rev. M. A. Mathew (Vicar of Bishop's Lydeard, 
Somerset), were ballotted for and elected Fellows of the Society. 
Mr. J. Jenner Weir exhibited a case of butterflies captured on the Alps, 
at a height of between 8000 and 9000 feet. These were interesting from 
the fact that they presented considerable similarity to, without being 
ii 
