NOTES AND QUERIES. 233 
Sky Lark and Starling, in which this is not the case, they being more often 
than not pied in some other part of the body.—J. H. Gurnry, sun. 
(Northrepps, Norwich). 
Golden Eagle in Co. Leitrim.—On April 25th a bird of this species, 
in splendid plumage, was shot at Lough Rynn, County Leitrim, by 
Mr. Taylor, gamekeeper to Colonel Clements, in the act of taking away a 
young lamb. The Eagle measured five feet from tip to tip of wings.— 
Witti1am J. Hamtiuron (Castle Hamilton, Killashandra, Co. Cavan). 
Curious Site for a Sparrow’s Nest.—Some very curious sites for 
nests have been recorded from time to time in ‘The Zoologist’; witness 
the case of a Titmouse nesting in one of the buffer-plungers of a railway 
carriage in daily use (Zool. 1884, p. 387), and a Sparrow building between 
the spokes of a wheel in frequent motion upon a gas-retort (Zool. 1883, 
p- 125). A still more remarkable case has just been noted. Prof. Flower 
informs me that during a recent visit to Woolwich Arsenal his attention 
was directed to a hen Sparrow sitting upon her nest containing five eggs in 
one of the axle-tree boxes of a 9-pounder bronze gun which is fired twice daily, 
at 1 p.m. and at 9.80 p.m.! One would have supposed that at the first dis- 
charge of the gun the bird would have deserted the nest for ever, and that 
the consequent recoil and vibration would have disturbed the eggs so 
materially as to render them unproductive. It is satisfactory, however, to 
learn from Col. Noble, R.A., that on May 16th five young Sparrows were 
hatched, and will probably be reared in due course.—J. EK. Harrine. 
Ornithological Notes from Somersetshire.—Although there has not 
been much to record, I send a few notes, mostly of the arrivals of migrants, 
which have been exceptionally late with us this spring; but, in the first 
place, I must mention a few very late stayers, which I suppose, owing to an 
exceptionally mild winter, did not leave us as usual in autumn. ‘The first 
of these was a Landrail killed near Taunton on the 15th January, an adult 
bird, but slightly differing from those killed at the more usual time, the 
pale bluish grey over the eye and on the sides of the throat not being so 
visible as the feathers are much margined with pale brown. On the 2nd of 
February I got a note from Mr. Gatcombe, telling me he had seen a Green 
Sandpiper in a poulterer's shop at Bridgwater, which had been killed near 
that place shortly before. Curiously enough I got a note from the Rev. 
A. P. Morris, vicar of Britford, near Salisbury, in which he said his son 
had killed two Green Sandpipers during the Christmas holidays. As I do 
not think that either of these have been recorded it may be worth while to 
mention them. I did not hear any more about Green Sandpipers till a 
more legitimate time,—namely, the 22nd April,—when I found one at 
Mrs. Petherick’s, birdstuffer, Taunton, doing duty as a Summer Snipe, 
Totanus hypoleucus; it had been killed at Wiveliscombe on the 16th, 
ZOOLOGIST.—JUNE, 1885. T 
