NOTES AND QUERIES. 299 



pity people are so ignorant about them "; in which expression of opinion I 

 quite agree. — E. Cambridge Phillips (The Elms, Brecon, S. Wales). 



Unusual Nesting-site for the Wryneck. — In the last number of ' The 

 Zoologist ' (p. 265) I recorded the fact of a Tree Sparrow nesting in a mole- 

 burrow in a brick-earth cutting in Kent. On July 9th I was examining the 

 holes in the same cutting on the chance of finding a late nest, when I heard 

 a sound, not unlike that made by shaking a handful of silver coins, issuing 

 from one of the holes ; after half an hour's hard work I was able to insert 

 my hand, when I discovered that the hole was occupied by five full-fledged 

 young Wrynecks. There appeared to be no nest, or, if there was, it was so 

 completely concealed under a mass of malodorous guano that I did not dis- 

 cover it. T have never met with any recorded instance of the Wryneck 

 breeding in a hole in the ground, and it may therefore be of interest to 

 publish the fact. — A. G. Butler (Natural History Museum). 



Hawfinch in Yorkshire. — This interesting bird is yearly becoming 

 more common in this neighbourhood. There are at least half a dozen 

 places where it nests, and at least three regularly. Mr. Storey, of Pateley 

 Bridge, obtained a nest in Nidderdale last year, the first record of its nesting 

 in the Dale ; the birds have again nested this year. During the winter 

 months an unusual number frequented the gardens in the town and on the 

 outskirts. I am inclined to think that they had all been bred in the 

 neighbourhood. On one estate great care is taken to protect them. The 

 head gardener, a very intelligent man, instead of shooting them, as his pre- 

 decessors had done, protects them carefully, but places nets over his fruit, 

 and thus prevents any complaints being made as to the damage done by the 

 birds to the fruit. — Riley Fortune (Harrogate). 



The Song of the Chaffinch.— In a recent number of ' The Ibis' (1887, 

 p. 194), Mr. W. C. Tait remarks that in Portugal the Chaffinch begins to 

 sing (as with us in England) in February ; he adds that there it recom- 

 mences to sing in September, and that he " has heard it as late as 

 November 27th." I may be mistaken, but to my recollection the Chaffinch 

 rarely sings during the autumn months in Great Britain. At any rate 

 I have only a single record of the fact among my field notes, i.e., on the 

 loth of September, J 882, I heard a Chaffinch singing lustily in a garden 

 near Carlisle. 1 should be glad to learn from other readers of ' The 

 Zoologist' whether our home Chaffinches are autumn songsters. If such 

 is the case, it is curious that the fact should be unnoticed in our text-books. 

 — H. A. Macpherson. 



Black Tern near Gloucester. — On May 21st a specimen of the Black 

 Tern, Sterna nigra, was shot at the "Lower Parting," on the Severn, just 

 below Gloucester, and has been set up by a local taxidermist, in whose 

 hands I saw it. It is an adult female bird, in perfect breeding plumage. 



