NOTES AND QUERIES. 383 



Dotterel in Nottinghamshire. — Thirty of these beautiful but now rare 

 birds were seen by a farmer in one of his seed-fields about three miles from 

 Nottingham during the last week of April Having no respect for the 

 Wild Birds Protection Act, he shot three of them ; the rest I iiope have 

 since reared their broods amongst the Cumberland or Westmoreland hills. 

 I never remember so large a " trip " having occurred in this county before ; 

 they generally come in small numbers only once in two or three years. — 

 J. Whitakeh (Rainworth Lodge, Notts). 



Nesting of the Long-tailed Titmouse.— On the -^Tth March last I 

 found the nest of the Long-tailed Tit built in a wild rose on the outside 

 hedge of a wood. It was domed but not quite lined, and the entrance also 

 needed some finishing touches. Both the birds were busily engaged in 

 completing the nest. Not unfrequently one of them, arriving with a 

 feather in its beak before, the other had finished its work, would wait 

 patiently until its turn came. After adjusting the feather to its satis- 

 faction, and before leaving, it carefully restored the uest to its right shape. 

 So far as I was able to observe both head and wings were used for this 

 purpose, but as nothing was visible but the tail, which projected from the 

 opening in the side of the nest, I could only judge from the strange way in 

 which the nest bulged out now on one side, now on another. Occasionally, 

 when this operation had been conducted with great violence, the bird would 

 cling by its feet to the outside of the entrance, and, after pulling out 

 portions of the fabric, rearrange them, moving the head rapidly from side 

 to side, as if weaving together the disordered part. This nest was finished 

 and contained one egg on April 9th. Another nest I found only just com- 

 menced on April 14th was finished and contained six eggs on April '-^8th. 

 The Long-tailed Tit {Acredvla rosea) was more abundant in this neighbour- 

 hood last spring than iias been the case for several years, but 1 fear several 

 nests were wantonly destroyed. One sent me from Newark, built in 

 a thorn, had the outside ornamented with bits of paper. I have noticed 

 this peculiarity occasionally in nests of the Chaffinch, when built in the 

 neighbourhood of a town. — W. Bfaihkk (Hill House, Southwell, Notts). 



The St. Kilda Wren. — Having spent three weeks on St. Kilda in 

 June, 1883, it might be supposed that I overlooked the bird which Mr. 

 Seebohm has lately described in this Journal as a new species of British 

 Wren (p. 333). On tlie contrary, one of my principal objects next to 

 making a complete list of the St. Kilda Flora, which was practically 

 unknown, was to procure a specimen of its Wren to see whether it ditTered 

 from, or was identical with, the Common Wren of the mainland, or of 

 the Faroes. On my return some short notes were put together and 

 shown to Mr. Howard Saunders in September last, and in tbese the St. 

 Kilda Wren and the special interest attached to it were particularly men- 



