OCCASIONAL NOTES. 109 



Dipper breeding in Middlesex. — Having heard a report some time 

 since — which much surprised me — that a Dipper's nest had been taken at 

 Pinner, near Harrow, I made enquiries into the subject, which resulted in 

 my receiving a kind note from Mr. Lionel Fisher, of Harrow, who states 

 the matter thus : — " In the beginning of May, 1876, I got from the bird- 

 catcher here three eggs of the Dipper, which were taken from Pinner brook. 

 The nest was afterwards shown me ; it was in shape like a very large Wren's 

 nest, made chiefly of moss, and built in a cavity in a large block of stone 

 and earth standing in the middle of the brook. There was another nest 

 taken from the same place the next year (1877), but I cannot trace the 

 eggs." — R. H. Mitford (Weston Lodge, Hampstead). 



[Instances of the Dipper nesting in the Eastern and South-Eastern 

 Counties of England occur so rarely that we can only call to mind one 

 besides that above mentioned. This was in Hampshire, in 1874, when the 

 circumstance was recorded by Col. H. S. Aslett in ' The Field' of 4th July, 

 1874. In the adjoining county of Dorset the Dipper breeds occasionally, 

 and farther west in Devon and Cornwall it breeds regularly. Doubtless 

 the explanation of this is, that in the west and north we have mountain- 

 streams with pebbly bottoms and rocky sides well suited to its habits, while 

 in the east and south-east the deeper and thicker waters with muddy banks 

 afford it neither good feeding-ground nor convenient nesting-places. Its 

 occurrence in Middlesex during the breeding-season is a most unexpected 

 event ; although as an occasional and passing visitant at other seasons it 

 has occurred two or three times in this county. — Ed.] 



Rusty Grackle and Pallas's Grey Shrike in Wales. — At a 

 meeting of the Zoological Society held on the 13th of December last, 

 I exhibited a specimen of the Rusty Grackle, Scolecophagus ferrugineus, 

 which was shot on the 4th of October last by a workman engaged as a 

 wheelwright. It was killed within a mile of Cardiff, on the grassy flats 

 between the sea and the mountains which are known there as " moors," 

 and was brought, a few hours afterwards, to Mr. Robert Drane, by the 

 man who shot it, and who was in the habit of bringing to that gentleman 

 any rare bird that he happened to meet with. It was shot on the wing, 

 and the plumage was in such a perfect condition that the idea of its having 

 escaped from a cage seems untenable. Mr. Drane has known the man 

 some time as an intelligent, though uninformed, workman, fond of birds, 

 and believes perfectly in his bona fides. This species has never before 

 been recorded as British. It appears to breed in the arctic regions of the 

 American continent up to the limit of forest-growth from Labrador to 

 Alaska. The example obtained at Cardiff appears to be an adult male 

 in autumn plumage. I also exhibited a specimen of Pallas's Great 

 Grey Shrike, Lanius major, which was shot in April of last year by a 



