424 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



case I think it worth while to record a similar instance observed by myself. 

 On the 29th May, 1879, I obtained a clutch of five Wren's eggs from a 

 Swallow's nest built under the rafters in the front of a cow-shed at Tunstall, 

 near Sittiugbourne, Kent. The nest was evidently not iu any way altered 

 by the Wrens, but contained only the few feathers and short hay which I 

 have usually observed in the nest of the Swallow ; the original proprietors 

 of the nest were also flying about, and one of them entered it for a moment 

 whilst I was watching. I have little doubt that the Wren had either been 

 robbed of or frightened away from its own habitation when just ready to 

 lay, and therefore adopted the first nest suitable to its requirements. — A. G. 

 Butler (British Museum). 



Wigeon in Notts in August. — When walking round the lake here on 

 August 5th with Messrs. Apliu and Bidwell, a male Wigeon, in summer 

 plumage, flew out of the rushes. From the way in which it rose and flew 

 away, it could not have stayed here from bein<,' wounded. This is the first 

 time I have ever seen a Wigeon iu Nottinghamshire during the summer. 

 In my note on the Grey Crow nesting near Birmingham, the word " north " 

 ought to have been " south," but any naturalist would at once see it was a 

 printer's mistake. — J. Whitaker (Rain worth Lodge, Notts). 



Leach's Petrel picked up in Birmingham. — Last week, at one of our 

 local bird-stuffers, I saw a male specimen of Leach's Petrel, which had been 

 picked up dead iu Guildford Street, in this town. The common Storm 

 Petrel has several times been obtained iu the borough, but this is the first 

 occurrence, to my knowledge, of the rarer species. — Robert W. Chase 

 ( Birmingham). 



Variety of the Coal Titmouse. — On the 24th of August last my 

 brother, the Rev. W. Becher, shot, in an orchard at Southwell, Notts, a 

 Coal Titmouse (Pants ater), a male of the year, of which the following 

 is a description: — Head, nape, and breast white, but crest-feathers strongly 

 tipped with black, giving a mottled appearance to the crest ; feathers 

 on the throat very slightly tipped with black ; greenish tinge round and 

 behind the eyes and on the sides of the neck ; the feathers, for some way 

 down the back, tipped with the normal colour, olive-grey, the remainder 

 being white, the amount of white rapidly diminishing towards the tail ; the 

 feathers on the other parts were of the usual colour. The bill was parti- 

 coloured, the culmen and uuder side of lower mandible being black, the 

 remainder white. — E. F. Becher. 



White and Pied Varieties of Birds. — Apropos of the White Curlew, 

 recorded at p. 377, and your editorial comments, it may be of interest to 

 remark that on Sept. 11th I examined, at the house of Mr. Watson, the 

 verger of Carlisle Cathedral, a pied Woodcock, obtained in June, 1882, 

 in Durham. It is not, however, extensively pied, the leucotism only 



