NOTES AND QUERIES. 305 



Warbler. The nest, which contained four typical eggs, was situated within 

 a few yards of the spot where Mr. Playue found a nest of the Marsh 

 Warbler last year (cf. Zool. 1894, p. 304); it was about 18 inches from the 

 ground, and very similar to last years nest, except that it was suspended 

 entirely from the stalks of meadowsweet, without the help of osier-stems. 

 We were not so fortunate in observing the bird this year as we were last, 

 when on two occasions we heard the male give an admirable display of his 

 mimicking powers : but, apart from that, there are certain passages in his 

 song which at once distinguish him from the Reed Warbler, the species 

 which he most closely resembles. I visited the nest again on June 29th, 

 expecting to find the young hatched, but found instead that the nest had 

 been ruthlessly destroyed ; the birds, however, were still in the neighbourhood, 

 so it is to be hoped that they will build a second nest, which will escape 

 detection in the thick meadowsweet.— A. F. R. Wollaston (King's College, 

 Cambridge). 



Grasshopper Warbler in North Wales, — From the notes contributed 

 by Messrs. Rawling and Salter on the birds of Wales, it appears that the 

 Grasshopper Warbler is a somewhat local species in the principality, and 

 it may be worth while to record its occurrence in Carmarthenshire aud 

 Auglesea. In the former county Mr. T. A. Coward and I heard a bird 

 "reeling" on a hillside covered with brushwood between Pwllheli and 

 Abersoch, in June, 1887, and again in May, 1888 and 1893. In May, 1895, 

 I heard a bird of this species in this spot, and a second in a snipe marsh 

 about a mile west of Abersoch village. In Anglesea Mr. E. W. H. Blagg 

 and I watched a female Grasshopper Warbler sneaking through the grass 

 on some waste land near Ty-croes station, in June, 1891. In July of the 

 present year I heard others "reeling" in three different places in the 

 neighbourhood of Cemmaes and Llanfechell, on the north coast of the 

 island. — Charles Oldham (Romiley). 



Cuckoo's Eggs in Whitethroat's Nest. — Although few cases of eggs 

 of the Cuckoo found in this country in nests of the Common Whitethroat 

 have been recorded, there can be no doubt that this species is very frequently 

 imposed upon by the Cuckoo. It is obvious that few birds are more likely 

 to suffer from the parasitism of the Cuckoo than the Whitethroat; and the 

 remarkable book on that bird recently published by Dr. Rev, of Leipzig, proves 

 conclusively that this is actually the case. Did Mr. Loat satisfy himself 

 that the Whitethroat mentioned by him (p. 229) did not lay its normal 

 number of eggs? Is there not the strong probability that the Cuckoo 

 before depositing her egg in the nest cast out and broke two eggs of the 

 clutch? — J. B. Dobbrk (Pitt Street, Edinburgh). 



Apropos of the remarks on this subject (p. 229), I may state that on 

 June 3rd last I was shown an egg of the Cuckoo which had been taken 



