NOTES AND QUERIES. 465 



I believe — not one of which was broken, although he had very 

 carelessly put the nest into one of his pockets. I think it is not a 

 common occurrence for such nests to he utilised for breeding purposes. 

 Sometimes they are used as temporary sleeping-quarters for newly- 

 fledged young, after they have left the nests in which they have been 

 reared. The Wren has again this year brought off its young in my 

 poultry-run. It has utilised the same crevice in the old bridge 

 over which runs the foot-path from our Council school to an outlying 

 hamlet. The nesting-site is very similar to the one chosen by the 

 Great Tit on the opposite side of the bridge ; no part of the "Wren's 

 nest could be seen from the outside. — E. P. Butterfield (Wilsden). 



Distribution of the Linnet in Britain. — In the ' Zoologist ' for 

 1911, p. 70, Mr. Stubbs, referring to the breeding of the Linnet, 

 states that this species is rare in or absent from a tract of country — 

 apparently suitable too — from Hebden Bridge to, say, Glossop and 

 parts of North Derbyshire. It may be of interest to state that in 

 walking to Castle Carr via the way of Ogden Moor belonging to the 

 Halifax Corporation, in July, I saw in a clough at the latter place a 

 pair of Linnets which were evidently breeding ; but my time being 

 limited I did not search for the nest, or probably young — I have 

 found this species with young at the end of August. In walking 

 from Chatsworth Park to Chesterfield I found the Linnet breeding 

 not at all uncommonly, and in and about the Peak district I think I 

 have noted this, but I will not be positive. It is, however, fairly 

 common in the Huddersfield district. In all parts of Yorkshire I 

 have visited wherever there are whin-covers I have never noted an 

 absence of this species in the breeding season. During the past 

 summer I found five nests in the districts, one or two in curious 

 situations. One, the first I found, was built close to a foot-path in 

 some dead fronds of the bracken of last 3'ear's growth which had 

 pushed their way into the lower branches of a hawthorn and had re- 

 mained standing through the winter. Within about a hundred yards 

 another was built in a lateral branch of a pine-tree, whilst another was 

 built in a spruce about seven feet high. All these were built within 

 a radius of about two hundred yards. One which I found on Baildon 

 Moor was built in a small whin, but the nest was quite on the 

 ground. This bird, however, for some reason forsook its nest. I was 

 very pleased to read Mr. Stubbs' notes, to which I have referred, 

 since it is always interesting to read of any bird which is said to be 

 common and generally distributed, but which in certain areas — and 

 apparently suitable ones too — is absent or very rare. Some years agc^ 



