NOTES AND QUERIES. 151 



beautiful shadings of lichen-grey and brown, as it perched upon the 

 tree-trunk close at hand ! Many summers have passed since I last 

 had the pleasure of hearing it ; the woods and orchards are the 

 same, but the birds are absent. It is true we have had unfavourable 

 summers following each other ; the mowing-machine (in the case of 

 the Corn-Crake), telegraph- and telephone- wires, the builder's bricks 

 and mortar, and in some cases unceasing persecution may be held 

 responsible for the apparent decrease, but it seems as if other potent 

 causes must be working destruction with many other species — the 

 Swallow tribe, the Sky-Lark, the Linnet, and others ; and the same 

 law applies to fish and insects (Lepidoptera), as the angler and 

 entomologist can testify. Let us hope that with more congenial 

 summers an improvement in bird-life may be noted. As regards the 

 Nuthatch, I do not think it is so scarce as newspaper and other 

 reports assume it to be. Evidently it is not so common as it once 

 was here, but I am told by those who provide a bird-table — and it is 

 gratifying to know their number is increasing — that the Nuthatch is 

 still much in evidence at times. With the uninitiated I believe it is 

 sometimes overlooked, as it moves hither and thither, mouse-like, 

 upon the branches, or ascending and descending the tree-trunk, 

 unlike its companion, the Tree-Creeper, which seems unable to 

 descend, and drops to a lower level to continue the examination. 

 When I was able to ramble amongst the feathered tribes the Nut- 

 hatch was one of my many favourites amongst the small birds. Its 

 comparatively large head and feet, its labour in contracting the 

 Woodpecker's hole for its own requirements, its Tit-like attitudes and 

 activity, its soft amorous whistle at nesting-time, are but a few points 

 in the character of this shy but fearless species. I recollect once 

 watching quite a battle near a nesting-hole in an old tree between 

 one of these birds and a Great Tit. Everyone knows what an im- 

 pudent and often courageous bird the latter is, but all his " pluck " 

 and bluster were of no avail against the larger and stronger bill of 

 the Nuthatch. It seems somewhat strange that the Nuthatch is 

 seldom, if ever, found in the Isle of Wight. — G. B. Corbin (Eing- 

 wood, Hants). 



Decrease of the Corn-Crake. — If the Corn-Crake is becoming 

 scarcer in some parts of England, it is a sad thought, but I can 

 assure readers of ' The Zoologist ' that most certainly such is not the 

 case in the neighbourhood of Scarborough, where (to use the words 

 of Mr. Steele Elliott in referring to its status in Staffordshire thirty 

 years ago) " a pair at least of Corn-Crakes may be found nesting in 



