148 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Naturalists' Society in January last, and Mr. Saunders exhibited at a 

 meeting of the Zoological Society of London on the 4th March last. The 

 dimensions taken while the bird was fresh are : — Total length, 18 in. ; 

 breadth across wings, 38 in. ; wing, from carpal joint, 13iu. ; bill, 2 in. ; 

 tarsus, 2j in. ; middle toe and claw, 2^ in. — T. H. Nklson (North Bond- 

 gate, Bishop Auckland). 



Kestrel nesting in Holes in Trees. — On May 15th last a gamekeeper 

 volunteered to show us the nest of a Kestrel in a hole at the top of an elm, 

 where, he said, a pair of these birds had nested for the last three years. 

 "When we arrived at the spot a beautiful Kestrel flew out of the hole, and 

 afiforded us a good view of her. My brother then climbed the tree, which 

 was a very stiff one, and found five eggs in a hole which was about a foot 

 and a half down in the elm. This was a few miles out of Oxford. In May, 

 1881, near Sherborne, Dorset, we found a nest of the Kestrel in a hole in 

 an elm containing two eggs, which are brick-red in colour, with some dark 

 blotches on them. — J. Rolleston Eaki.e (15, Norham Road, Oxford). 



[Other instances have been recorded of Kestrels nesting in holes of trees. 

 In the summer of 1876 a pair nested in the hollow of an old pollard at 

 Bromley, Kent, and during the summer of 1881 Mr. J. H. Gurney saw two 

 Kestrels' nests in Surrey, both of which were in holes of trees. One was about 

 two feet down in an elm, the other about a foot down in an ash. — Ed.] 



Habits of Woodcock and Snipe. — In the 1th edition of Yarrell's 

 ' British Birds,' part xix. p. 332, the Woodcock, Scolopax rmticula, is 

 described as regularly visiting India between October and February. This 

 statement probably requires qualification, and 1 should imagine that the 

 bird is only met with at a considerable elevation in the hills, and then but 

 occasionally. Woodcocks have been found, I believe, near Shillong, in the 

 Khasi Hills, about 5000 or 6000 feet above the sea-level, these hills forming 

 part of a range bounding the Brahmaputra Valley on the south as a part 

 of the Himalayas does on the north. I have met with men of considerable 

 shooting experience in the Outer Himalayas, near Mussoorie, and do not 

 remember to have heard the Woodcock mentioned among the birds they 

 had come across. Towards the conclusion of the account of the Woodcock 

 Yarrell records Sir F. Chantrey's feat of killing two Woodcocks at a shot. 

 A neighbour of mine matched this exploit, for some years ago he also 

 killed two Woodcocks at a shot near a wood within a couple of miles of 

 Myross. The birds were flying out to feed in the dusk when he got the 

 chance. Have any of your readers seen Snipe feeding in the early morning 

 along the margins of shallow pieces of water ? In Northern India, when a 

 juvenile sportsman not yet up to liitting a flying bird, I have often 

 succeeded in shooting a good many by starting them from the edge of 

 "jhils" (ponds or small lakes), and then carefully approaching the spots 



