NOTES AND QUERIES. 305 



typical eggs, and was suspended from stalks of meadow-sweet, and one 

 osier-stem. It was about 18 in. from the ground, and I have especially 

 noticed in this case, what has already been pointed out by Mr. Fowler, that 

 the stems passed outside the nest and through the rim only, whereas in 

 nests of the Reed Warbler the stems which support them are usually 

 worked into the sides of the nest from near the bottom to the top. There 

 was a little horsehair lining, and some pieces of wool were worked into the 

 foundation outside. The hen bird began to sit on four eggs on June 22nd ; 

 I took one egg, and the remaining three were hatched on July 5th. The 

 cock bird was a splendid mimic, and it was most amusing on two occasions 

 when I took two friends, who know the Reed and Sedge Warblers well, to 

 listen to him. Among others he imitated especially well the Thrush, Sky 

 Lark, Great Tit, Whitethroat (both its song and alarm note), Swallow, 

 Willow Wren (song and alarm note), and Whinchat. On the same day on 

 which I found this nest I also found nests of the Reed and Sedge Warblers 

 near the same spot, and so had a good opportunity of comparing both birds 

 and nests of the three species. — H. C. Playne (Clifton College). 



Sand Martins nesting in a Ruin.— During the last week of June, 

 while visiting Garrison Island, on Lough Cullen, Co. Mayo, I was surprised 

 to see a number of Sand Martins flying about the castle walls, and passing 

 in and out of the crevices between the stones where the mortar had fallen 

 out. On landing to examine the place I saw traces of nests in the crevices, 

 and with a stick pulled out part of one ; but the fissures were so deep, and 

 the mortar so hard from age, that it was impossible to get at either eggs 

 or young birds. The ruins are those of a circular-shaped castle, or tower, 

 probably the former, for the diameter of the circle enclosed by the walls is 

 eighteen or twenty yards; the portions of the walls standing are about 

 twelve or fifteen feet in height, almost level with the inside, which is filled 

 up with fallen stones and rubbish, overgrown with grass and nettles. At 

 the base of the walls outside, in a thicket of tall nettles, a Red-breasted 

 Merganser (Mergus serrator) was sitting on ten eggs ; and inside, in some 

 long grass and nettles, was another nest of this species with a similar 

 number of eggs, on which the duck was sitting so close that she was almost 

 taken with the hand before leaving the nest. On the broad, flat, grassy 

 top of the walls three pairs of Common Terns had eggs, and four or five 

 pairs of Black-headed Gulls ; while in the centre, on the grassy rubbish 

 were the nests and eggs (one with young just hatched) of five or six pairs 

 of Terns. At the bushy end of the island two pairs of Sandpipers {Totanus 

 hypoleucus) were noisily flitting about, evidently showing by their anxiety 

 that they had eggs or newly-hatched young close by. — Robert Warren 

 (Moyview, Ballina). 



Lesser Redpoll breeding in Somersetshire*— It may be worth mem 

 tioning that there are a good many of these birds this year on Clifton 



