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NOTES AND QUERIES. 



AVE S. 

 White Wagtails at Co. Mayo. — For the first time since these birds 

 have been observed visiting Bartragh regularly every spring, a pair 

 were seen the last week in August (by Captain Kirkwood) visiting the 

 island on their autumn migration. It is strange how none have been 

 observed previously, although a sharp look-out has been kept for 

 them in autumn as in spring. — Robert Warren (Ardnaree, Monks- 

 town, Co. Cork). 



Abnormal Eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher. — A pair of Spotted 

 Flycatchers built a nest in half a coconut-shell in this garden, and 

 on May 31st last had five eggs. They were all unmarked, and aU 

 misshapen, and resembled one another in the latter respect almost 

 exactly. I took one egg, and did not expect that any of the others 

 would be hatched. But one of them was hatched, and the young 

 bird became nearly full-feathered, when it died in the nest. Probably 

 a cat killed the parents, or one of them, for they disappeared. The 

 Flycatcher has been scarce here for the last three or four years, and 

 this season — like some other summer birds — has been perhaps rarer 

 than ever. It is impossible to preserve birds in village gardens so 

 long as the villagers keep an unlimited number of cats, and the law 

 relating to cats remains as it is. These beasts — the only so-called 

 domestic ones allowed to roam at will on land that does not belong 

 to their (nominal) owners — seldom fed, and constantly tormented 

 by children, seek a quita refuge in people's gardens, and then de- 

 stroy a large proportion of the nests of birds which do not breed in 

 inaccessible holes, as well as of the old birds and young ones of all 

 species just out of the nest. — 0. V. Aplin (Bloxham, Oxon). 



Starling and Bullock. — On one of the hottest days of the past 

 summer I was standing close to some young bullocks which were 

 sorely tormented by flies. One of them was closely attended by a 

 young Starling, which was busily engaged in pecking these insects 

 off his nose and eyes. As the bullock kept his head more or less 

 close to the ground, his nose was within easy reach of the bird's beak, 

 but in order to get at the flies clustering thickly about his eyes the 



