NOTES AND QUERIES. 227 
about forty-five feet from the ground, on a slim, nearly branchless oak, 
which at that point divided into three limbs. By climbirg another tree, 
higher up on the slope, we could see three young birds in the nest; they 
looked about ten days old, and were of a yellowish white colour. ‘The nest 
was very much like a Crow’s, but much larger, and was remarkable in 
having many loose sticks hanging from its sides. The Raven's nest was 
placed in an ash tree growing horizontally from the side of a precipitous 
ravine on a slope of the Brecon Beacons. An aneroid gave fifteen hundred 
feet as the height above the sea. I went to the nest, which I believe is 
two years old, on March 22nd of this year, and found it much the same as 
it was last summer. I went again on April 15th, and noticed the nest had 
been added to, and re-lined with white wool, and contained three eggs of the 
light blue variety, and one young bird. The inside of the nest could be 
well seen from another tree higher up on the cliff. The next day another 
young bird had appeared, and with difficulty I secured an egg, which proved 
to be addled. While I was there the two Ravens were in close attendance, 
soaring overhead, and sometimes perching on the rocks, and one returned 
to the nest very soon after I left it. The latter is a very large structure, 
nearly three feet high. It would seem that in twenty-five days the nest 
had been repaired, four eggs laid, and incubation all but completed.— 
E. A. Swatnson, Capt. (Woodlands, Brecon). 
[We sincerely trust that the naturalists of Brecon ‘will do all in their 
power to protect these fine birds.—Ep. ] 
Sand Grouse in Germany.—In a long article extending over thirty- 
three pages, Dr. Reichenow, in the ‘ Journal fiir Ornithologie’ for January 
last, has traced the occurrence of this species in Germany during the year 
1888, mentioning all the localities in which, so far as he could ascertain, it 
had been observed. 
Sand Grouse in Middlesex.—As I have not seen any notice in print 
of the appearance of Pallas’s Sand Grouse in Middlesex during the recent 
immigration of this species, it may be well to record that a little flock of 
about a dozen birds were seen in this neighbourhood, near Staines Moor, 
on June 19th, 1888. They were observed at close quarters by a neighbour 
of mine, who, on seeing in my collection the stuffed specimens which I had 
procured during the former invasion of this species in 1863, had no 
hesitation in identifying the species. So far as I know they were not 
molested, and I am glad to say that no one about here carries a gun in the 
summer time.—F’. Bonp (Staines, May 20). 
Sand Grouse in Surrey.—The following notice of the occurrence of 
Pallas’s Sand Grouse in Surrey is taken from the ‘ Graphic’ of March 2nd 
last :—* Pallas’s Sand Grouse, which was very plentiful last year, still 
lingers. A specimen was shot by mistake for a Dove, at Shirley, near’ 
