( 153 ) 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



GENERAL. 

 The Itineraries of John Ray the Naturalist. — It woukl be 

 interesting if the present whereabouts of tlie originals of The Itine- 

 raries of John Ray, the famous Naturalist, could be ascertained. 

 They commence in 1658, and terminate abruptly at the College of 

 Eton in July, 1662. In 1760 George Scott, of Woolston Hall, in 

 Essex, printed lengthy selections from them, and these were reprinted 

 in 1846 by Dr. Edwin Lankester. Scott died in 1780 — some years 

 after William Derham, who was his uncle by marriage — and his 

 library, etc., was sold in July, 1782. It is more than likely that at 

 its dispersal, the manuscripts of the Itineraries were disposed of 

 too.— J. H. GuRNEY, (Keswick Hall, Norfolk). 



AVES. 

 Cuckoo Problems.— In the ' Zoologist ' for 1915, p. 317, Mr. J. S. 

 Elliott writes : " Occasionally the egg of the Cuckoo is the only egg 

 found within the nest, but the probability is that the first egg of the 

 foster-parent has already been removed." In the September number 

 of the ' Zoologist ' for 1915, p. 355, I stated that there are many 

 instances to which the above remarks cannot apply, since many of 

 the Cuckoos' eggs have been known to have been deposited in incom- 

 plete and even deserted nests ; in confirmation of which, two friends 

 write that they too have known Cuckoos to lay their eggs in nests 

 before such nests have been finished. One adds that he has known 

 a Meadow Pipit's nest from which three Cuckoos' eggs have been 

 taken, all evidently laid by one individual. — E. P. Butteefield. 



Various Bird Notes from Bradford District. — Mr. Ellison, of 

 Steeton, near Keighley, writes me that he found two eggs of the 

 Nightjar laid on the top of a low stone wall last season, which were 

 hatched in this situation. I recorded an instance some years ago in 

 the ' Zoologist ' of a Nightjar laying its eggs on the top of a table in 

 a keeper's hut on the top of Barden Moor in Wharfedale. I am 

 glad to report that the Greater Spotted Woodpecker brought off its 

 young last season in Bingiey Wood, and two Turtle-Doves were seen 

 by the gamekeepers in May, but it was not ascertained that they 

 bred. Only one instance of the nesting of the Hawfinch in this 

 Zool Mil ser. vol. XX., Ajnil, 1916. N 



