388 Ornithological Notes. By George Bolam. 



three previous occasions — once near Falmouth, when two birds were seen, 

 and twice in the Scilly Islands. In Ireland or Scotland it has not as yet 

 been noticed, but the present specimen having been killed north of the 

 Tweed and within a very few miles of the borders, would almost seem to 

 give it a right to rank as an occasional visitor to the last named country. 



Hedge Waebleb : Accentor modularis, (Linn.) 

 Varieties of this bird frequently occur. On the 15th March, 1878, I saw a 

 rather unusual and very prettily marked specimen near the village of Ord, 

 about a mile and a half from Berwick-on-Tweed. The head and neck and 

 the whole of the lower parts of the body were pure white with the excep- 

 tion of a dark feather or two near the occiput, and a few slight streaks of 

 brown about the flanks ; there was also a large patch of white upon the 

 back, and several of the quills of both wings and tail were of a similar 

 colour. Some years ago I remember seeing one which had the two outer 

 feathers on each side of the tail quite white, the rest of the plumage being 

 a.s usual ; and during the past winter one frequented the garden here which 

 had a single white spot, something in the form of a crescent, upon the 

 back of the head. 



A nest of the hedge sparrow, which I came upon near the mill in Hern- 

 cliife Dene, in May, 1882, was most beautifully suspended amongst the long 

 slender branches of some honey-suckle hanging over the side of the cliffs ; 

 and a similar instance, where the nest was attached to trails of ivy, was 

 noticed on the banks of the Whiteadder, in the previous year. So many 

 of the eggs and young of these birds are destroyed by field-mice that one 

 is almost led to wonder whether in hanging their nests to these slender 

 branches, the birds are not exercising a kind of reason in thus doing their 

 best to protect them from the plunders of such small enemies. 



EiNG Ouzel : Turdus torquatus, Linn. 

 Appears to be very irregular in its migrations. In an ordinary way the 

 breeding birds on the Cheviots have eggs in April, the second laying being 

 about the beginning of June, but in some years migrants arrive on the 

 coast as late as the middle of May. On 15th May, 1877, there were large 

 numbers of the birds about the Abbey and Castle on Holy Island, but they 

 do not build there, while in other years L have observed them on the coast 

 from the middle of April to near the end of May. During April and May 

 small parties may often be seen upon the Kyloe Hills, and on the 16th 

 May, 1879, I took a nest in that locality with full complement of eggs, but 

 it is only very rarely that they breed there. 



On 5th December last I met with a single ring ouzel on the hills near 

 Wooler ; it was feeding, in company with a flock of fieldfares, upon some 

 hawthorn berries. With the exception of the instance mentioned by White, 

 who records the appearance of some birds of this species in Hampshire at 

 Christmas, 1770, this would appear to be the only time that the ring ouzel 

 has been found in the British Isles during winter. 



Grasshopper Warbler : Acrocephalus ncevius, (Bodd.) 

 This is a bird which I cannot choose but think is rapidly increasing in our 

 district. Some few years ago its voice was but seldom to be heard, where- 

 as now it appears in some years almost plentifiilly, wherever there is scrub 



