298 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



British Redpolls. — I have read with much interest the suggestion of Mr. 

 J. H. Gurney, junr., that the large and pale-coloured Lesser Redpolls, which 

 are often to be met with, are hybrids between the two species. I have 

 examined a great many living examples in East London and elsewhere, and 

 I incline to think that two races of Lesser Redpoll can be distinguished. 

 Of course there are "dwarfs" also, which are clearly late or weak birds. 

 But though the larger race, which I have often seen in Oxfordshire, is 

 frequently confused with the Mealy Redpoll by dealers, I am inclined to 

 think that it is both too numerous and too constantly identical in notes and 

 song with the smaller and tawnier bird to have any blood of the Mealy 

 Redpoll, which latter differs so decidedly in notes and in individual traits 

 from the common bird. To my mind it is quite as natural that there 

 should be two races of Lesser Redpoll as two races of the Dunlin or 

 Wheatear, which I believe to be the case. Rut though I have kept a 

 large number of Redpolls and examined many more, I make these remarks 

 with all deference. — H. A. Maopherson (Carlisle). 



Choughs in tha Co. Waterford.— On the 22ud May inst., I took the 

 Chough's nest mentioned (p. 252) as having been re-lined ready for eggs on 

 the 9th. We found the female hatching, but on being disturbed she 

 remained uttering her cry from the rock above. These Choughs must 

 have been singularly unsuspecting to use the nest which we had visited on 

 three previous occasious, splicing ladders together to reach it each time. 

 It was built of stems of heather, the smaller branches of furze, with some 

 stalks of bracken and woodbine; inside this was mixed a little grass with 

 a thick lining of cow's-hair and wool, the cavity being rather broad and 

 open ; it contained three eggs, one only of which showed slight evidences of 

 incubation. Further round the coast I saw a pair of Choughs fly into the 

 crevice whence their eggs had been taken on the 9th. Taking a further 

 survey from a boat of a spot where Choughs were said to breed every year, 

 another pair of these birds came dropping down after their manuer with 

 closed wings, and regardless of our presence flew to their nest before our 

 eyes ; it was, as usual, in a hole over a cave of considerable height. I then 

 landed, and on descending to their nest by a rope I found three young 

 birds, from a week to a fortnight old, indistinguishable from young 

 Jackdaws of the same age, several broods of which I had seen the same 

 day (May 22nd). I did not molest this nest. Thus out of five nests 

 examined two contained two eggs each, one three eggs, one three young, 

 and one five eggs. A man who took five Choughs'-nests in the same 

 locality about five years ago told me that these contained two and three 

 eggs each, not more. In another place, on being lowered to a fissure in 

 the top of which was said to be a Chough 's-nest, I could just see the bottom 

 of a nest from below ; the only entrance being through a small hole in the 

 top of the fissure, and the position quite impregnable. — R. J. Ussher 

 (Cappagh, Co. Waterford). 



