NOTES — ORNITHOLOGY. 247 



SHERWOOD FOREST AND THE 'DUKERIES.' 



Sissons's ' Beauties of Sherwood Forest' : a Guide to the ' Dukeries ' and 

 Worksop : with map and copious illustrations. Compiled by F. Sissons. 



Worksop : Sissons and Son, 8, Potter Street. London : Hamilton, Adams 

 and Co. * * 1888 [Small Svo. 146 pages — price is.]. 



The guide now before us is a well-written and most interesting 

 book, free from superfluous verbiage and replete with the kind of 

 information that visitors most wish to possess. 



Due attention is paid to the natural beauties which more than 

 human edifices form the peculiar charm of the district, and the 

 magnificent and famed Oaks — the ' Major,' the ' Parliament,' the 

 ' Greendale,' and others — are successively treated of, while additional 

 value is given to the guide by chapters of special interest to readers 

 of this journal in which the Rev. Hilderic Friend discourses of the 

 botany of the district and another (unnamed) contributor possessing 

 intimate knowledge of the subject describes the cave-explorations 

 which have been carried on at Cresswell Crags under the Superin- 

 tendance of the Rev. J. Magen Mello. 



We wish every success to the Guide, and trust that in future 

 editions its compiler may be able to include chapters dealing with 

 the far-famed Entomology of Sherwood, its interesting avifauna, and 

 the mollusca which inhabit the great lakes at Thoresby and Clumber. 



NO TES— ORNITHOL OGY. 



Redshanks breeding near York. — Some ten years ago Mr. E. Warrington 

 began to ' flood ' his ings on the banks of the Wharfe, in the parish of Ryther, 

 opposite Nun Appleton. A few years after, Redshanks ( Totanus calidris) began 

 to breed there, probably disturbed in their haunts at Strensall by the recent 

 military occupation. I saw three pair of these birds last week, in walking from 

 Ulleskelf Station to Ryther to celebrate my father and mother's 58th wedding day. 

 The old birds, whose young ones I saw also, flew round my head with vociferous 

 cries, their legs, stretched back under the tail, gleamed a reddish colour, and the 

 expanded wings showed on the upper surface a well-defined white line. This was 

 not visible when the wings were folded. The birds settled repeatedly on sawn 

 stomps of willow trees, and also on tender twigs of small trees in the hedgerow. 

 The birds were in company with a few Green Plovers ( Vanellus vulgaris). As 

 the above is a new habitat for breeding, I send information to The Naturalist. — 

 E. Maule Cole, Wetwang Vicarage, York. 



Curious Nests of Missel Thrush. — On May 14th I found a most curious 

 nest of the Missel Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) at Birk Crag near Harrogate. It 

 was composed externally almost entirely of large white feathers, which stuck out 

 all round, giving it a most conspicuous appearance. 



Last year I found a nest of the same species in Barber's Coppice, built externally 

 of bookbinders' cuttings, which blew about with the wind, of course making the 

 nest easily discernable. A curious fact is that in this same coppice for five years 

 I have found nests composed for the greater part of these paper shavings. 



For the last three years a Missel Thrush, and I presume the same bird, has 

 built a nest of this material and in exactly the same place every year. — Rii.f.y 

 Fortune, Harrogate, June 1889. 



Aug. 1889. 



