270 BRITISH BIR13S. [vol. vii. 



PUFFIN IN BERKSHIRE. 



A PuFFEsr {Fratercida a. arctica) found at Stanford Dingley, 

 Berkshire, on December 6th, 1913, two days after a gale 

 from the south-west, was brought to me alive on December 

 8th. It was not at all emaciated, and had probably come 

 in contact with a tree. Four records of this species are given 

 in the Victoria History of Berkshire, and Mr. Heatley Noble 

 tells me he has not heard of any others since. 



NoEMAN H. Joy. 



[For two other records see British Birds, V. p. 197. — 

 Eds.] 



LITTLE BUSTARD IN SUSSEX. 



On December 27th, 1913, an example of the Little Bustard 

 {Otis tetrax) was obtained at Icklesham, Sussex. I examined 

 it in the flesh on the following day, and found it to be 

 a male, in splendid condition, H. W. Ford-Lindsay. 



FLEAS IN OLD NESTS OF BIRDS. 



On December 17th, 1913, on raising the lid of a nesting- 

 box in which a Blue Tit nested last year, I found the old 

 nest to be swarming with fleas. On the trunk of the tree 

 to which the nesting-box was afiixed were also numbers 

 of fleas, apparently basking in the sun (which was shining 

 brightly at the time) and ready in an instant to jump upon 

 any bird-host that by chance alighted near them on the 

 tree. This was exemplified by the ready way in which 

 a number of the fleas jumped upon my hand when placed 

 near them. The Hon. N. Charles Rothschild has kindly 

 identified sixty of these fleas as Ceratophyllus gallince, a 

 species found on many birds. There were altogether over 

 two hundred fleas in this old bird's nest, and also a number 

 of larvae of a small moth (probably one of the " clothes 

 moths ") and of a small beetle, and these were apparently 

 feeding on the decaying vegetable matter of which the 

 nest was composed. On January 7th, 1914, an old Robin's 

 nest in a nesting-box was found to be similarly infested 

 with fleas. John R. B. Masefield. 



Song of the Willow-Tit. — ^Mr. S. E. Brock makes, in 

 the Scottish Naturalist (1913, p. 283), some interesting 

 remarks about the song of the Willow-Tit [Parus a. hlein- 

 schmidti) as observed in West Lothian. Mr. Brock describes 



I 



1 1 



