390 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



one flew past within a few yards of where I was resting, and in June 

 a pair were seen flying across a meadow into Bolton Woods, in 

 Wharfedale. In July, whilst travelling along a highway close to this 

 village, a Lesser Eedpoll rose from a bank close to the roadside, and 

 I naturally thought it was feeding on some kind of seed, and took no 

 further notice, but on going a few days later I again saw the bird near 

 the same place, and on going near the spot from which it arose I 

 found the nest with two eggs, built in a quickset hedge not more 

 than eighteen inches from the ground, and, although people were 

 frequently passing to and fro, the old birds brought off their young 

 in safety. I have never before found the nest of this species so near 

 the ground ; the next nearest the ground I once found in a hazel- 

 bush, but it must have been a yard or more from the ground. 

 Whilst walking out with a friend in May last, he called my attention 

 to a nest partially built at the foot of a rose-bush which he had been 

 poking with his walking-stick, and which I certainly thought was a 

 Grasshopper- Warbler's, but owing to the nest having been disturbed it 

 had been forsaken. Several nests are said to have been found this year 

 in the Bradford district ; it is, however, a rare species in Airedale. It 

 is said to have bred near Thornton. I have not found all this season 

 a nest containing a Cuckoo's egg, although the bird has been plentiful. 

 Since this species must lay on an average ten or a dozen eggs in a 

 season, one would expect to find them much more frequently than 

 experience warrants. A friend of mine tells me that a Cuckoo's egg 

 has been found in a Robin's nest near Halifax this season. Late in 

 this season I visited a young plantation, and found a good many 

 nests, chiefly Throstle's, all of which contained dead young ones. At 

 first I attributed this to the intense heat, but on second thoughts I 

 came to the conclusion that the cause must have been some disease, 

 as they all appeared to be about the same age — perhaps six or seven 

 days old. To find nest after nest containing dead young is one 

 of the saddest sights witnessed this season. Corn-Crakes have 

 been commoner than for a good many years, and so has the Red- 

 start. I have never before seen so many young Redstarts in 

 September, whilst the Wheatear has been remarkably scarce. The 

 Black-headed Gull is founding breeding colonies near a good many of 

 our reservoirs in Yorkshire ; one I visited in April last, where there 

 appeared above a hundred, nearly all of which remained to breed ; 

 another, which only had about four pairs three or four years ago, this 

 season must have had over one hundred and fifty pairs breeding. 

 In the July number of ' The Zoologist ' {ante, p. 277), Mr. Walter 



