NOTES AND QUERIES. 303 



cation almost certain even before seeing the specimen, and on reaching the 

 house I at once saw that the "strange bird" was an example in breeding 

 plumage of the Wall Creeper, Tichodroma muraria (Linn.). His attention 

 was called to it by some men who had noticed its bright colours, and he 

 shot it near the ruin of the Grey Friars' Chapel, on the property of Major 

 Stileman. A plate of this picturesque ruin, with the adjoining house of 

 its owner, may be seen in the late W. W. Cooper's 'History of Win- 

 chelsea,' facing page 149. The lower picture shows the lawn over which 

 the bird was flying when shot just after it had left the ruin to the right. It 

 was set up by Gasson of Rye. It is unfortunate that no note was made of 

 the date of the occurrence, but Mr. Mitchell feels sure it was in late spring 

 about ten years ago, i.e. about 1886. This is the third recorded occurrence 

 of the Wall Creeper in Britain, and is an addition to the Sussex avifauna. 

 The specimen is now in my possession, and it will be exhibited at a 

 meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club. — W. Ruskin Butterfield 

 (St. Leonards-on-Sea). 



Birdsnesting in August. — Although the nesting season is usually 

 supposed to be long past by the month of August, at all events for most 

 inland species of birds, I have never had much difficulty in finding a few 

 late nests in that month, and even in September. Accordingly on Bank 

 Holiday, Aug. 3rd, whilst staying in a corner of Cambridgeshire, I took my 

 host's son, a boy of twelve, out for a walk, to try and show him a nest or 

 two, and was even more successful than I anticipated. In less than two 

 hours we found the following : — Two Yellowhammer, each with 3 fresh 

 eggs ; 3 ditto, with 4, 3, 4 eggs incubated ; 1 Linnet, with 5 fresh eggs ; 

 6 ditto, with 4, 4, 4, 5, 3, 4 eggs incubated; 2 ditto, with young, one brood 

 just hatching, the other nearly fledged; 3 Greenfinch, with 4, 3, 1 fresh 

 eggs; 4 Turtle Dove, each with 2 fresh eggs; 2 ditto, each with 2 eggs in. 

 cu bated ; 2 ditto, each with 2 young ; 2 Wood Pigeon, with 1, 2 fresh eggs ; 

 3 Hedgesparrow, each with 1 addled egg. I may add that there are very 

 few trees and hedges in the district, and the foregoing were all found in a 

 small plantation of blackthorn and hawthorn bushes, and in a hawthorn 

 hedge bounding an open farm of nearly 1000 acres. — Robert H. Read. 



The Hawfinch and Turtle Dove in Lincolnshire.— With reference 

 to Mrs. Anderson's notes on the Hawfinch nesting at Lea Hall (p. 257), 

 I may add that it is now recognised as a regular nesting species in several 

 localities in the county. In the winter of 1895-6 I met with old birds in 

 three places in North Lincolnshire where it has not been previously 

 recorded. In the present summer a young brood has been hatched off 

 somewhere about my premises, but I was not aware of this till the young 

 had left the nest. Subsequently the parent birds and their brood laid 

 heavy toll on the peas. In driving about the country, or travelling by rail, 

 during the present summer I have seen more Turtle Doves than in any 



