NOTES AND QUERIES. 229 



Sussex Heronries. — It will be of interest to students of the Sussex 

 avifauna to learn that the surmise expressed (p. 100) in reference to the 

 breeding of Herons at Iden Wood, near Rye, has proved correct. Iden 

 Wood is situated on the right of the highway from the village to Peasmarsh, 

 and is about 100 acres in extent. On May 27th I found eleven nests 

 placed in fine old oaks at an average height of about thirty-four feet. 

 Four of the nests were empty, the young having left a few days before, as 

 the keeper informed us ; while one contained three eggs, and the rest had 

 young mostly ready for leaving the nests. I found on climbing to the nest 

 containing eggs, a Ring Dove's nest built immediately underneath and also 

 containing eggs. The Herons have visited this colony for four or five years, 

 but do not seem to have increased in number. I much fear that some of 

 the nests have been disturbed, notwithstanding a declaration to the contrary 

 from the keeper. The colony is favourably situated, and if protection were 

 extended to its occupants it would no doubt speedily become one of the 

 largest in the county. There is also a small settlement of Herons, of 

 which I do not remember to have seen an account, in the Heron Wood, 

 near Appledore, the property of Dr. Bernard. — W. Ruskin Butterfield 

 (Stanhope Place, St. Leonards-on-Sea). 



On the Specific Validity of Briinnich's Guillemot. — As the beautiful 

 plates of this bird in Lord Lilford's ■ Birds of the British Islands ' have 

 only recently been issued, and as I have not seen any remarks on the 

 subject in hand in any periodical devoted to Ornithology or otherwise, 

 I should like to say a few words on the matter. I am the possessor of two 

 out of the three specimens which were taken in this county (Yorkshire) 

 during the exceptional winter of 1894-95, and examined all three in the 

 flesh. Moreover, I have spent a great part of my time by the seaside, 

 often with my gun, and always with my field-glass, and have examined a 

 great number of Guillemots at various times. The facts recorded have 

 come under my own personal observation ; my conjectures may be right or 

 they may be wrong ; but if they lead to any elucidation of the difficulty 

 I shall be glad. In my humble opinion, Briinuich's Guillemot is not a 

 good species. I have examined many Guillemots that have been shot and 

 washed ashore on the Yorkshire coast, have measured them, and noted 

 their points of difference, and have come to the conclusion that they vary 

 biter se to an enormous extent, both as regards size, colour of the soft parts } 

 length and depth of bill, absence or presence of white line thereon, &c, and 

 that no hard and fast line can be laid down as to where this species begins, 

 and that ends. If a large series of skins were examined taken from birds 

 frequenting the northernmost latitudes to which this species goes, right 

 away down to the most southern point that they frequent, I believe that 

 every gradation would be found between them. Lord Lilford himself, in his 

 accouut of U. bruennichi in the last issued part of his work, says : — " I am 



