354 NOTES — ORNITHOLOGY. 



Mr. Whitlock's request to obtain a hybrid is too late for this year 

 (supposing that they still inter-breed) : and as for next year's birds, 

 we shall" have to wait. His remarks on the Tree Sparrow's eggs 

 are quite correct for the average. I have had some which measured 

 |ths of an inch long by /];ths of an inch wide, and others as small 

 as those of the Robin. 



Since writing the above I happened to be in the vicinity of 

 Baxter Wood, and visited the place where the Sparrows (House 

 and Tree) nested so commonly in 1880, 1881, and 1882, but, alas! 

 time had wrought many changes during the intervening seven years, 

 several of the trees having disappeared ; of the remaining ones, 

 one (an ash clad with ivy) alone was one of the original trees, whilst 

 the birds, I found, had emigrated to some other locality. Unless 

 I can come across another colony where the birds inter-breed near 

 here, I shall be unable to try and obtain a hybrid. — 24.X.90. 



NO TES— ORNITHOL O G Y. 



. Flamborough Bird-Notes. — I have two more Sabine's Gulls {Xona sabi'ni) 

 to report. One was shot October 7th, South of the Headland ; the other on the 

 North, October 13th. (Quantities of Sea Gulls and Kittiwakes (A'lssa tridactyla) 

 have been seen passing the Headland for several days previous to the storm 

 now raging, which is not an unusual occurrence on the approach of a storm. — 

 Matthew Bailey, Flamborough, October i6th, 1S90. 



Shore-Lark on Walney Island. — Some months ago allusion was made to 

 the presence of the Shore-Lark (Otocoiys alpes(ris) on the coast of Cumberland. 

 It may be interesting to add that a male Shore-Lark was shot on Walney Island 

 in October last, and sent to the writer for his identification. When Prof. Newton 

 wrote his account of the Shore-lark for the fourth edition of Yarrell, this species 

 was supposed to be almost unknown in the West of England. Mr. Mitchell, how- 

 ever, records several 'Lancashire' occurrences in the 'Birds of Lancashire.' — 

 H. A. Maci'HER.son, Carlisle, Nov. 6th, 1890. 



The Grey Phalarope in Cumberland. — The Grey Phalarope [Phalaropus 

 fiiUcarius) to which Mr. Macpherson alludes as having been shot in Cumberland 

 in August 1866, was shot on the 24th of that month, and identified by Mr. J. 

 Watson, of Carlisle. Out of 235 Phalaropes killed that year, this was the earliest 

 but one, the earliest of all having been shot at Deal on the 20th. The real 

 migratory movement did not set in until September loth, on which day three 

 were shot ; on the 12th, five ; on the 14th, six; on the 15th, twenty-two; and 

 after that they were common. — J. H. GuRXEY, Keswick Hall, Norwich, Nov. 4th. 



Notes on the Tree Sparrow. — With reference to the papers which have 

 appeared under this heading, I beg to forward a few remarks as to my experience 

 of the habits of this bird in Kent. I have found its nest in the thatch of stacks 

 in fields away from habitations, under the tiles of lone deserted houses, in 

 chalk cliffs by the sea, and in holes in pollard willows, but never in the branches 

 or in bushes. I had a colony under my observation for several years, and I am 

 certain that two broods were reared. The first eggs are laid about the middle 

 of May, and second batch, often in the same nest, exactly a month later. — 

 J. Young, 64, Hereford Road, Bayswater, London, Oct. 3rd, i8go. 



Naturalist, 



