1032 The Zoologist — January, 1868. 



There is little doubt that as birds are known to return to the same 

 parts here, year after year, that they also repair to the same in their 

 wintering countries, and birds of a certain locality would probably 

 migrate together. Is there not room then to suppose that some 

 casualty had befallen the Lincolnshire martins, either in their winter 

 quarters or in one or other of their migiatorial movements ? This 

 granted, it may take several seasons to replenish the stock. 



Swallow. — On the 15th of October, in the passage from Dieppe to 

 Newhaven, I was surprised at seeing swallows crossing the channel 

 in small and widely-scattered parties, instead of, as I had always 

 imagined they did, in flock. 



Stock Dove. — Some time in May I took a pair of young slock doves 

 from a hollow yew tree on our Downs. They are still alive and doing 

 well, and are now in full plumage, having completely moulted since. 

 The moult was commenced about the middle of July and finished by 

 the middle of October, the wing and tail-feathers being shed and 

 renewed, and the metallic tinge on each side of the neck acquired. I 

 first heard them "coo" on the 26th of June. Can any reader inform 

 me if 1 may expect these birds to breed next year? 



Reed Warbler. — The reed warbler is a locally-distributed species 

 in Sussex, as probably in other counties, being, as a rule, found only 

 amongst or in the neighbourhood of reed-beds, which in this division 

 of Sussex are of infrequent occurrence. Adjoining our rivers, the 

 Arun and the Adur, here and there, where the draining tool has not 

 done its work, and in some of our larger ponds, these reed-beds are 

 still to be found. At the Burton Ponds, near Petworth, I have this 

 last June found the reed warbler breeding, and also at a small pond 

 near Chichester. This last-uamed pond is not more, perhaps, than 

 three-quarters of an acre in extent, three-fourths of it being a bed of 

 reeds. Here I should say, at a guess, some eight or ten pairs of reed 

 warblers breed annually, and it was here that the cuckoo's eggs were 

 taken in 1864 (referred to Zool. 9211); here also I obtained a supply 

 of reed warbler's eggs this year ; after about an hour's wading 

 considerably over knee-deep on the unsound bed of reed-roots, I came 

 out with four nests containing eleven reed warbler's eggs and one 

 cuckoo's. The reed warbler is a late breeder. At Burton only one 

 of the nests found on the 1st of June was finished, and this with one 

 egg in it. Near Chichester, on the 27th of June, some nesls contained 

 four eggs, others only two, but all quite fresh. The nests vary greatly 

 in their formation, being much neater when sheep's wool is the 



