NOTES AND QUERIES. 435 
July, he offered to secure me another specimen as he had done in May, but 
I declined. On looking through my diary I find that the majority of cases 
in which this bird has come under my observation have been between 
November and March, so that the occurrence of the species in May was 
unusual, though I did not think it worth recording at the time. I have 
on more than one occasion seen the Long-eared Owl flying over the heaths, 
but always in the evening (Zool. 1877, p. 20), and, as this species 
occasionally nests in the neighbourhood, it is just possible that from their 
comparatively erratic appearance, the owls seen by my friend the game- 
keeper were referable to this and not to the Short-eared species. Never- 
theless, it would be interesting (to me) to know whether the latter has ever 
been known to nest in the southern counties of England.—G. B. CorBin 
(Ringwood). 
Winter Visitors in Northumberland,—On Sept. 27th, while on the 
Town Moor, Newcastle, I observed five Wild Swans at a great height, 
flying from south to north. Taken in conjunction with the fact that during 
the previous week, in North Northumberland, particularly near the sea- 
coast, the Redwing (Twrdus iliacus) had already arrived, a month before its 
wonted time, may not this portend an early and severe winter? Snow has, 
in fact, already fallen on the Cheviots; and near Wooler, on Sept. 25th, I 
noted several flocks of Wild Ducks and Wild Geese, but all flying north- 
wards.—R. DuncomBE JEWELL (Newcastle-on-Tyne). 
Redwing nesting in Yorkshire.—In ‘ The Zoologist’ for September I 
notice that Mr. Browne, in his “‘ Notes on the Vertebrate of Leicestershire ’ 
(p. 334), mentions the Redwing as breeding in that county. In the year 
1879 I found what must have been the nest of a Redwing at Harrogate, in 
Yorkshire. This nest was built in the forked branch of a small oak, ina 
small wooded coppice, called Barber’s Coppice ; it was placed about six feet 
from the ground, and contained four eggs of a greenish white ground colour, 
the green shade very faint, speckled with a light shade of reddish brown, 
and about the same size as a Song Thrush’s egg. — Ritzy Forrune 
(61, Grainger Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne). 
[The description given of the eggs certainly applies to those of the 
Redwing, which are not unlike small varieties of the Blackbird.—Ep.] 
Note on the Great Crested Grebe.—Mr. T. E. Gunn tells me that he 
has noticed the eye of the Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) to vary 
greatly in colour, being sometimes lemon-colour, sometimes red, and some- 
times brown. A most singular instance of this sort, which could not be 
accounted for by age or season, occurred last Christmas in an example shot 
on Ranworth Broad on Dec. 80th. Ten minutes after death I held it up 
by its legs, and its eyes were then a delicate buff with a tinge of yellow, 
but the next morning they had changed to a bright clear currant-red. Mr. 
