$66 TflE ZOOLOGIST. 



The first was in an apple-tree in an orchard between Coombe Down and 

 Midford, at a distance of ten feet from the ground. The nest was beauti- 

 fully made of small twigs and sticks, and lined inside with vegetable down 

 as white as snow. It contained four eggs, highly coloured but poorly 

 marked, and quite fresh. The second nest was taken a week later, on the 

 bank of a stream which runs through Midford near Tucking Mill. It was 

 built in a willow-tree overhanging the brook. The nest was composed of 

 twigs, lined with vegetable down, and in this case with plenty of hair. 

 There were five eggs, and incubation had commenced. There were Brown 

 Linnets breeding in each case in close proximity." — C. B. Horsbrugh 

 (4, Richmond Hill, Bath). 



Pheasant nesting in a Tree. — With reference to the Pheasant's laying 

 iu a nest in a tree near Barnwell, as recorded in a note from Miss F. (not T.) 

 Wickham to me, and forwarded, at her request, for the last number of ' The 

 Zoologist '(p. 227), I heard yesterday from Mr. Henry Wickham, of Barnwell 

 Castle, that there were nine eggs in this nest when first found, that three 

 young birds were recently found dead at the foot of the tree in which the 

 nest was situated, and as all the eggs were hatched, it is hoped and believed 

 that the parent bird has taken off the remainder of her brood in safety. — 

 Lilford. 



[Instances of Pheasants nesting in trees are not so uncommon as might 

 be supposed. Several such cases are noticed in Mr. Tegetmeier's work ou 

 Pheasants (2nd edition, 1881, p. 10), the height from the ground varying 

 from nine to twenty-five feet. In these instances the hen Pheasant had 

 appropriated deserted nests of the Wood Pigeon, Owl, Sparrowhawk, and 

 Squirrel, and in several cases the young of some of them had been brought 

 down in safety, though many had been killed by falling.— Ed.] 



Dotterel in Haddingtonshire.— On May 22nd I saw a flock of eight 

 Dotterels, Endromias morinellus, at a place called Dirleton, in Had- 

 diugton. They were feeding on some ploughed land, and I was told that 

 they had been there some days. Is it not rather late, considering the 

 early season, for these birds to be in flocks ? — Harry F. Witherby 

 (Musselburgh, N.B.). 



Whimbrel in the Midlands. — I have recently seen two Whimbrels 

 which were shot in the north-eastern corner of Buckinghamshire, not far 

 from the river Ouse, in the secoud week of May — about the loin — 15th. 

 Although the Whimbrel passes (in N.E. and S.W. directions) over the 

 southern Midlands at the periods of migration, and is observed with tolerable 

 regularity while on passage, it very rarely alights in these counties. 

 When it does so it is, I believe, always in spring. At all events, I have no 

 record of the Whimbrel being shot or observed on the ground in Oxfordshire 

 in August or September. This observation holds good of Northampton* 



