NOTES AND QUERIES. 306 



birds — a handsome cock — is still in my possession. I have been in the 

 habit of giving him all my young dead Canaries, if only two or three days 

 old, and he has eaten them with considerable relish, bolting them whole : 

 the young Thrushes being larger could not be so readily swallowed, and 

 therefore would necessarily have to be pulled to pieces. — A. G. Butlek 

 (British Museum Nat. Hist.). 



Nesting of the Common Sandpiper.— Although the following facts 

 are mostly at second-hand, they may be of interest to some readers of 

 ' The Zoologist.' The Common Sandpiper, T. Iiypoleucus, disappears from 

 the banks of the Severn in this neighbourhood about the middle or end of 

 May, and I hear that it also leaves the lower reaches of the Wye — say from 

 Ross downwards — about the same time. It is not rare during early spring 

 on both rivers. Doubtless these birds move up-stream to breed on the 

 banks of the higher waters and tributaries of both tliese rivers. It is found 

 breeding annually on the banks of the Lugg ; and Dr. Williams, of Kings, 

 laud, has this year brought a somewhat remarkable fact to my notice. The 

 nest is usually placed on the shingle and mud thrown up by the river, and 

 which becomes covered with docks and other coarse herbage. During the 

 last two seasons all the eggs have been destroyed by floods, and this year 

 a complete change of habit has taken place. Every nest except one — 

 possibly that of a new arrival in the district — has been placed out of reach 

 of any possible flood, some being sixty yards from the water, others in a 

 wood on a steep hillside, and one even placed in the head of a pollard 

 willow. An Ayrshire correspondent has sent me some fine clutches of only 

 three eggs each, and he suggests the fact of four (the usual number) not 

 being laid may be attributed to stormy weather. Has this been noticed 

 elsewhere? — H. W. Marsden (Gloucester). 



Note on the Ring Ouzel. — On June 13tb, at Castleton (Derbyshire), 

 hearing a great noise from two Ring Ouzels, I watched them going to a 

 nest, from which one of them (the other looking on from close by) twice 

 took eggs to the grass near, where he began to eat them. I afterwards 

 climbed to the patch of grass, and found one of the eggs finished, the other 

 (quite fresh) only half eaten. The eggs in question were either Blackbird's 

 or Ring Ouzel's. I was unable to reach the nest. As this fact of Ring 

 Ouzels robbing a nest for the sake of the eggs is is strange to me, I thought 

 it worth communication. — Alfred F. Buxton (5, Hyde Park Street, W.). 



A new Egg-drill. — Several correspondents having written to me 

 asking about the egg-drill mentioned in ' The Zoologist' for June, I beg to 

 state that the full address of the firm from whom it may be obtained is 

 "The Dental Manufacturing Company," 6 to 10, Lexington Street, Golden 

 Square, London, W. In ordering they should ask for No. 6.5 in "Ash's 

 Catalogue," and particularly mention that it is to be sharp-pointed. They 



