NOTES AND QUERIES. 273 



species holds in the Sussex avifauna has led me to regard it as certainly on 

 the increase. In his ' Ornithological Rambles in Sussex ' (1849), the late 

 Mr. A. E. Knox cites but one instance of the Hawfinch breeding in the 

 county, and adds that the bird is "of uncertain occurrence, being not 

 unusual during some years, and comparatively rare in others" (cf. Borrer's 

 1 Birds of Sussex,' pp. 126-128 — though the author does not view the 

 matter in a comparative spirit). Mr. Field, of St. Leonards, has kindly 

 shown me eggs from a nest brought to him last year, and also those from 

 another taken by himself during the present year. In each case the birds 

 indulged their usual proclivity for gardens. I have also great reason to 

 believe that another nest has been taken in this vicinity during the present 

 year. In November, 1894, I saw two male Hawfinches feeding in the 

 neighbourhood of Battle — the scene of the famous Norman victory — and 

 on pointing them out to an intelligent gardener he assured me that such a 

 sight is by no means uncommon in winter. — W. C. J. R. Butterfield 

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



Nesting of the Hawfinch and Greater Spotted Woodpecker.— In 

 the last number of 'The Zoologist' (p. 232), Mr. Steele Elliott gives an 

 account of a Hawfinch's nest screened with green leaves plucked by the 

 bird. I have never had the fortune to observe this interesting fact; but a 

 nest that I found this year was built on a small oak sapling about nine feet 

 high, entwined round which was a cluster of the common honeysuckle, and 

 the bottom of the nest outside, being formed, as is usual with the Hawfinch, 

 of green grey lichens, assimilated so closely with the colour of the under 

 side of the honeysuckle leaves that it was most difficult to distinguish. 

 A nest of the Chaffinch which I found deserves mention : it was in a wood, 

 built in the fork of a small hazel, and neatly and beautifully made as usual, 

 but studded all over outside with the chips that a Great Spotted Wood- 

 pecker had turned out of the nesting hole in an adjoining tree, which gave 

 it a very curious appearance, and so far from being in any way protective, 

 at once drew the attention of the eye towards it. With regard to this same 

 Great Spotted Woodpecker, having the good fortune to find the bird at 

 work inside the tree, and to witness the showers of chips that were expelled 

 at the same time from the hole, I feel convinced, as was suggested by a 

 friend of mine, that the bird uses the stiff tail-feathers as a kind of broom 

 with which to sweep out the chips. — Oxley Geabham (Flaxton, York). 



Nesting of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker near Bath.— Although 

 the nesting of this little known Woodpecker in Somersetshire may be 

 of more frequent occurrence than is supposed, yet the following remarks 

 may be of interest to ornithologists, more especially to those who are 

 interested in the avifauna of this particular county. On June 9th, 

 accompanied by a friend, I was strolling along the side of a ditch, when I 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XIX. — JULY, 1895. Y 



