264 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vn. 



Essex. — ^Ingatestone, January 2nd, one {Field, 17.1.1914, 

 p. 139). 



Kent. — ^Higli Halden, December 31st, one shot (J. H. 

 Allchin). Higliani, Gravesend, January 7th, two seen 

 (Rev. J. R. Hale). ' 



Sussex. — ^West St. Leonards, January 17th, one picked 

 up ahve (N.F.T). Hastings, January 3rd and 7th, three 

 shot; and numerous reports of others in the county 

 (H. W. Ford-Lindsay). 



Wiltshire.- — Swindon, December 31st, one shot (D. P. 

 Harrison). 



Abroad. — ^Herr F. Tischler records an invasion of Wax- 

 wings in East Prussia [Ornith Monatsher., 1914, p. 7) in the 

 autumn of 1913. In Kreise Niederung, Sondermann noticed 

 the first on October 21st, and near Bartenstein Tischler 

 saw a flock of about fifteen, from which he shot one young 

 bird. After this time reports were recorded from the 

 Konigsberg district. Not only have Waxwings been 

 numerous but large numbers of Siberian Nutcrackers and 

 Pine Grosbeaks have also been reported. Although the 

 weather up to November was quite abnormally mild at 

 Rossitten, Waxwings, Northern Bullfinches and Redpolls 

 were frequently recorded from October 13th onward at 

 the Vogelwarte, and Pine G-rosbeaks in November by 

 Dr. J. Thienemann {op. cit., 1913, p. 194). 



BREEDING HABITS OF CUCKOO. 



On June 4th, 1913, I found an egg of the Cuckoo {Cuculus 

 c. canorus) perfectly fresh, in a nest contaming four young 

 Robins apparently two or three days old. On June 16th, 

 1910, a Cuckoo's egg was laid in an empty Greenfinch's 

 nest from which I had removed the eggs a week previously. 

 My notes show that of the eggs and young of the Cuckoo 

 found by me in Sussex during the last six years, 43 per 

 cent, were in Robins' nests and 28 per cent, in Hedge- 

 Sparrows'. The earliest date of which I have a record is 

 April 29th, 1909, in a Robin's nest, and the latest July 14, 

 1908, in a Pied Wagtail's. The eggs were quite fresh in 

 both instances. R. Ware. 



CUCKOOS' EGGS IN NESTS OF HOUSE-SPARROW, 

 TWITE, AND WHEATEAR. 



In 1908 one of my correspondents, Mr. F. W. Peaples, found 

 the nest of a House-Sparrow {Passer d. domesticus) in a tree 



