VOL. vn.] NOTES. 57 



GREY PLOVER IN THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



On June 10th, 1913, Avhile bird- watching off the island of 

 Eilean Mor, in the Outer Hebrides, the weather being fine 

 and settled and the wind north-westerly, I saw a Grey 

 Plover [Squatarola squatarola), in adult-plumage. 



Maud D. Haviland. 



[The Grey Plover has been very rarely recorded at any 

 season from the Outer Hebrides. — ^Eds.] 



LAPWING'S NEST WITH FIVE EGGS. 



On March 12th, 1913, I found a nest of a Lapwing (Vanellus 

 vanellus), containing five eggs, near Oswestry, Shropshire. 

 'This is only the second time I have seen five in a nest. Four 

 of the eggs were placed in the usual manner and the fifth 

 at a corner of the square. By the colour and markings I 

 •should say all the eggs were laid by the same bird. 



J. H. Owen. 

 [Clutches of five in the case of the Lapwing have been so 

 frequently recorded, that the fact may be regarded as definitely 

 proved. Besides the two cases mentioned above, other 

 instances will be found in the Zoologist, 1887, pp. 267 and 349 ; 

 1906, p. 316 ; and British Birds, Vol. II., p. 136, etc. I have 

 also seen nine clutches of five eggs in private collections, 

 which are not recorded above. Although the similarity in 

 markings in many of these cases points to their having been 

 laid by the same bird, and in one case at least one egg was 

 a dwarf, the best evidence that one female may occasionally 

 lay five eggs is contained in a notice of a clutch of five eggs, 

 all of which were abnormally small, mentioned in the Becord 

 of the Caradoc and Severn Valley Field Club for 1901. Nests 

 with six eggs are far rarer, and in this case are probably due 

 to two hens laying in the same nest. One instance is 

 referred to in the Becord just mentioned for the year 1902, 

 and I have seen another in a private collection. — F. C. R. 



JOURDAIN.] 



NEST-MAKING BY LAPWINGS. 



Although the method of nest-building by the Lapwing 

 has doubtless been recorded before, the following observations 

 which I made of a pair actually engaged in making their 

 nest may be worth noting. They had chosen a grass-field. 

 The actual spot selected was stripped bare of grass (presumably 

 by the birds, as many bits of dead grass lay all round) and 

 both cock and hen assisted in making a depression by clearing 

 the earth awaj^ by scraping and pecking. It was then 



