OTES 



^' LAND-RAIL " AND "INCREASE AND DECREASE 

 IN SUMMER RESIDENTS " INQUIRIES. 



We have received a good many schedules relating to these 

 two inquiries (see Vol. VI., pp. 296-311, and Vol. VII, 

 pp. 4-6), but we sincerely hope that many more of our 

 readers will send in particulars. This should now be done 

 without delay, and if the forms have been lost or mislaid 

 others will be sent at once on receipt of a post-card. — Eds. 



VARIATION IN TONGUE-SPOTS OF 

 NESTLING SKYLARK. 



When, in 1907 (c/. lUs, 1907, p. 574), I drew attention to 

 the tongue-marks found in the young of certain Passerine 

 birds, I was under the impression that the pattern of these 

 ornamentations was always fixed, and a constant character 

 in the species that possessed them. This, however, is 

 apparently not the case, for on July 29th, 1913, I found the 

 nest of a Skylark {Alauda a. arvensis) containing fladglings 

 with abnormally marked tongues. Hitherto all the nestling 

 Skylarks I have examined have had (a) a black mark 

 on the inside of the tips of both mandibles, and (6) three 

 very distinct black spots on the tongue, one situated at 

 the apex and the others laterally on the basal half of the 

 tongue (c/. op. cit, p. 575, fig. 13). 



In the three nestlings I found on July 29th these usually 

 conspicuous basal spots on the tongue were wanting in 

 each individual. Collingwood Ingram. 



[Dr. C. B. Ticehurst {B.B., Vol. IL, p. 194) and Miss A. C. 

 Jackson {op. cit., p. 196) also specify the tongue-spots 

 of the nestling Skylark as three in number and situated 

 as described above as normal. — ^Eds.] 



UNUSUAL SITES FOR PIED WAGTAILS' NESTS. 



Eaely in July, 1913, my attention was called to the nest of a 

 Pied Wagtail {Motacilla alba luguhris) built upon flat ground 

 on the edge of a border in a kitchen-garden. It then con- 

 tained three eggs. On July 18th I again visited the spot, 

 and the nest then contained a young Cuckoo about one-third 

 grown, which was being fed by the parent Wagtails. The 

 nest had become so pressed down by the young bird, that it 



