NOTES AND QUERIES. 809 



the boatmen who accompanied us got several eggs of Puffins. We landed 

 on the rocky islet near Puffin Island in hopes of finding a nest of the Great 

 Black-back. No eggs, however, were to be found. We got two ^ggs, in 

 separate nests, of Herring, or Lesser Black-backed Gulls ; which species it 

 was impossible to say, as we did not see the birds on their nests. The 

 weather, I am sorry to say, was too un propitious to allow a visit to be paid 

 to the Skelligs. — William W. Flemyng (Coolfin, Portlaw, Co. Waterford). 

 [The piece of candle forwarded by our correspondent is of the size, 

 shape, and general appearance of a " blanched almond." — Ed.] 



Eggs of the Tree Sparrow. — T can quite confirm Mr. Aplin's remarks 

 (p. 228) concerning the eggs of this bird. I have met with this locally- 

 breeding species somewhat commonly in three different vicinities, namely, 

 the sea-shore, in a spot near Kamsgate, where it breeds indiscriminately in 

 holes of trees or crevices and holes in the sandstone cliff; near Ilford, in 

 Essex; and in the neighbourhood of Harrow, Middlesex, where it is, 

 I believe, as common as in any other locality in the British Islands. In 

 this latter district I have observed its habits for the past six or seven years, 

 and during that period I have seen a very large number of nests, once as 

 many as three in a single old oak tree. I take the perfect clutch of eggs to 

 be five in number, and out of all the sets I have seen I never saw one of 

 that number which had not one " light " egg, with but few and pale 

 markings. Certainly some sets of four have had all the eggs dark, but 

 even in a few sets of that number I have had a light egg. One peculiarity 

 in this species is its habit of using the same nesting-hole year after year, 

 in spite of molestation. I know of one such hole in the vicinity of Harrow 

 which is used each season, first by a pair of Starlings, and later by the 

 Tree Sparrows, which will persist in their attempts to rear a brood in it, 

 although, from its exposed position, the nest has been robbed perhaps twice 

 or thrice in a season. — Henry K. Swann (Forest Grove, Colville Street, 

 Nottingham). 



Curious proximity of Nests.— We have in the garden plantation 

 here two nests in such close proximity that I think it worth recording in 

 * The Zoologist.' They are those of a Wren and a Tree Creeper, and are 

 built in an old stump which is hollow and split. The Wren's nest is at 

 the top, and only six inches from that of the Creeper. In the deer-shed in 

 the paddock here I have also a Thrush's nest with young, and a Wren's nest 

 at the side of it, the one actually touching the other. — J. Whitaker 

 (Rainworth, Notts). 



Ornithological Notes from France.— During the spring of this year i 

 spent twelve days with a friend in France, with the intention of seeing what 

 I could of birds, and especially anything connected with their migration, 

 and with the help of bicycles we travelled over a good deal of country. 



