NOTES AND QUERIES. 69 



the list of British birds by Prof. Newton on the acquisition of a specimen 

 near Cambridge (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1879, p. 219), and it has also been met 

 with twice in Norfolk (Zool. 1884, p. 493 ; 1889, p. 135), in Lincolnshire 

 (Zool. 1892, p. 424), and in Co. Mayo (Zool. 1890, p. 310). Its occurrence, 

 therefore, as a straggler from Europe to the British Islands seems to be 

 fairly well established. — J. E. Harting. 



Swimming Powers of the Water Ouzel. — Perhaps the following, 

 taken from my note-book on April 22nd last, may add further interest to 

 the editorial note on this subject (pp. 23-24). Having found a nest of five 

 young Dippers, I proceeded to take them, when one of them fluttered from 

 the nest — which was built under the mossy stones of a small waterfall — 

 into the stream below. Hurrying quickly down to save it, as I thought, 

 from a watery grave, I was astonished to see it immediately dive, and swim 

 under water with ease (chiefly with the use of its wings) to some stones at 

 the water's edge, some eighteen to twenty feet distant. Making a feint to 

 capture it, again it dived, and swam some three feet more before coming 

 to the surface, and thus again and again did it dive to avoid my out- 

 stretched arm ; but at last, not endeavouring to cross the pool, I restored 

 it to its mossy home to wait until its pin-feathers should grow sufficiently 

 before another venture, and then probably an aerial instead of an aquatic 

 flight. — J. S. Elliott (Dixon's Green, Dudley). 



Nesting of the Spotted Flycatcher.— Referring to Mr. Whitaker's 

 note in * The Zoologist' for December last (p. 459), I may state that I have 

 twice found the nest of this bird placed in a similar situation, both instances 

 being in Highgate Woods six years ago. The first nest was placed in an 

 open situation in the fork of a branch of a little crab-tree, and only four feet 

 from the ground ; it was the most perfect nest of the species I have ever 

 met with. The second nest was in a fork in the centre of a hawthorn, and 

 about five feet from the ground. The fork had previously held a Chaffinch's 

 nest, which some one had removed, and the Flycatcher's nest was placed 

 upon the remains of it. The majority of Flycatchers' nests I have seen 

 have been placed against the trunks of oaks, or sometimes upon horizontal 

 limbs. I have found one nest of this species in a hole in a pollard-willow, 

 as far in as a Redstart would go, and another in a disused nest of the 

 Blackbird, eleven feet up in the side of a haystack. — H. K. Swann (Euston 

 Road, N.W.). 



A Brood of White Swallows. — During the past summer a brood of 

 four white Swallows, Hirundo rustica, was reared in a shed at Bere Regis. 

 Of these at least three survived as late as the month of October, when 

 I saw them on Deverell Down in company with several other Swallows. 

 They were apparently then congregating previous to migration, and I have 

 little doubt that they contrived to leave the country unharmed. — J. C. 

 Mansel Pleydell (Whatcombe, Blandford, Dorset). 



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