46 NOTES — BIRDS. 



Equally unfounded is the notion that they commit a great deal of 

 mischief in pigeon cotes, by pushing the young birds out of the 

 nests and devouring the eggs. My experience on the subject leads 

 to a directly opposite conclusion, as for more than thirty years I have 

 kept a well-stocked pigeon cote close to the farm premises, and even 

 placed eggs outside the cote, where the starlings were in quest of 

 food, yet in not a single instance did they touch, or even notice the 

 eggs, and after careful observation I am satislied they do not disturb 

 the pigeons in any way. 



It is difficult to account for the prejudice which exists in the 

 minds of some persons respecting birds. As a rule farmers are not 

 close observers of their habits, although the subject is not unworthy 

 their attention, and especially should they notice the several varieties 

 which do not feed upon grain, lest, haply after compassing their 

 destruction, the cultivators of the soil should find their fields and 

 gardens infested by hosts of winged and creeping insects, doing 

 incalculable damage, and baffling the most persistent efforts to 

 exterminate them. 



NOTES— BIRDS. 



Shore-larks at Flamborough. — Twelve Shore-larks (Otocoiys alpestris) were 

 shot on the headland on Saturday, 21st December last, and .several more were 

 .seen. — Matthew Bailey, Flamborough, December 24th, 1SS9. 



Storm Petrel near Alford in 1888. — On the 14th November 1888, 

 Mr. Thomas Bishell, a gardener at Thoresthorpe, a hamlet adjoining Alford, 

 observed a bird hovering about him as he was spreading hsh manure — partly 

 sprats. Thinking it was a Swallow — so unusual a visitor at that time of year — 

 he watched until it alighted near him as if to feed on the fish. With a well 

 directed throw his fork chanced to fall upon and hold the bird till he could seize 

 it, apparently little harmed. After keeping it a couple of days he had it killed 

 and stuffed. Mr. John Cordeaux and I saw the bird yesterday, and it is clearly 

 Procdlaria felagica Linn. Mr. Bishell has since kindly given the specimen to 

 me. — Jas. Earuley Mason, Alford, Line, 24th January, 1890. 



Dunlins and Ringed Plovers in Notts. — These two species occur very 

 regularly on our part of the Trent every spring and summer. I am somewhat 

 puzzled as to where their breeding-grounds lie. 



The former species (71 alpiiia) arrives generally about 20th April, on its spring 

 migration. It usually occurs in small parties of six or seven, in full breeding 

 plumage. Compared with Scotch specimens, it is distinctly smaller, the length of 

 bill being considerably less. By the middle of July the young are to be seen 

 feeding on the shores of the Trent, some of them showing considerable traces of 

 down on the neck. 



The only high ground in this neighbourhood is the Charnwood Range, but this 

 is a very unlikely ground on which to find Dunlins breeding. I have not met 

 with them in the Derbyshire Peak. The direction of the spring migration is certainly 

 against the stream of the Trent. Can it be that these are the Dunlins that breed 

 in the marshes of the Dee? 



The same remarks apply to the Ring Plover (.-Egialifis Itiaticiila), except that 

 its arrival in spring is rather later, and it does not differ in size from the normal 

 variety; it is also less numerous. — F. B. Whitlock, Attenborough. 



Naturalist, 



