NOTES AND QJlFAilRS. 190 



bird it i3 unfortunate that it should not have bcon rocoj^nisod and 

 recorded at onco. Howovor, I not only had from Mr. Ellis himself a 

 description of tlio circumstiinccs in which it was taken, but afterwards 

 it passed direct from his possession into mine. It has since been 

 examined by Mr. Wm. Eagle Clarke, of the Koyal Scottish Museum, 

 Mr. Ellis was quite certain of the month in which ho shot it, but 

 was hardly so certain of the exact year. This makes the third 

 occurrence of this species in Ireland, the other two also being in the 

 autumn. — J. M. McWilliam (Craigmore, Bute). 



Further Notes on Newton's Statements on Birds. — I should like to 

 supplement my notes on some statements l)y Professor Newton in 

 his ' Dictionary of Birds ' (' Zoologist,' 1915, p. 182). Eeferring to 

 the Stonechat, p. 918, ho remarks that the cock of this species is " a 

 conspicuous object on almost every furze- grown heath or common in 

 the British Islands " — a statement not at all in consonance with 

 what is now known of its status during the breeding season. In 

 many, if not most, parts of Yorkshire, and other places in Britain 

 which were at one time considered as eminently suitable breeding 

 haunts for this species, it is found to be exceedingly rare if not 

 altogether absent, as will be seen by a reference to the ' Zoologist, 

 1901, p. 64, and the ' Naturalist,' vols. 3 and 4, 1877-8. 



With reference to the Eedshank, Newton states : " Before the great 

 changes effected by drainage in England it was a common species in 

 many districts, but at the present day there are very few to which it 

 can resort for the purpose of reproduction." This species, at least in 

 some parts of Yorkshire — and there are good reasons to believe this 

 applies to other parts of England as well — breeds much more com- 

 monly than was the case formerly, and it by no means at this season 

 confines itself to marshy grounds ; on the contrary, it often nests in 

 dry situations at some distance from very marshy ground. 



Does Newton wish it to be understood that the Lesser EedpoU is 

 almost wholly insectivorous in summer ? If so, I think he is mistaken. 

 It may not, however, be so exclusively a seed-eating species as the 

 Linnet, but still I think it largely feeds on seeds in summer. 



The Swift, in the speed of its flight, " apparently exceeds that of 

 any other British species," so the Professor states, a statement, I think^ 

 which it would be difficult to prove. \ few years ago the late Alfred 

 Walker, of the Bradford Scientific Society, and myself had many 

 rambles in the Yorkshire Dales for the purpose of ascertaining the flight- 

 speed of birds, and we found that the flight of the Swift w'as by no 

 means so swift as is popularly believed. Indeed we found the flight of 



