NOTES AND QUERIES. 311 



Woodchat Shrike ; nearer Bordeaux I saw two more, one of them singing 

 from the top of a vine-pole. In a reed-bed not far from Blaye were two 

 Great Reed Warblers, singing so loudly that I heard them some distance 

 away ; they were not at all shy, and one perched in full view on a reed close 

 to me, as though pleased to have a listener. At Bordeaux we only made a 

 short stay, and I was unable to find any new birds ; Nightingales were very 

 plentiful, but Chiffchaffs and Willow Wrens were not so numerous as they 

 were further north. In the evening of April 21st, while riding along the 

 bank of the Garonne, I noticed a very large number of Swallows flying 

 steadily down stream quite close to the water ; there was a continuous 

 flight of them till it became too dark to see. Could they have been 

 migrants that had crossed the Cevennes, or were they only making for 

 some favourite roosting-place down the river ? We travelled by train to 

 Saumur, and rode back to St. Malo through Rennes. On the sand-banks 

 in the Loire I saw Waders, which I believe were Dunlin, and near Angers 

 heard the only Landrail we met with. On our return we found Nightin- 

 gales plentiful near St. Malo, though none were there when we started. 

 What especially surprised me was that I could find no Wood Wrens in any 

 part of France we visited, though I searched for them in many suitable 

 spots ; there were plenty to be found as soon as we had crossed again to 

 Southampton. Nor did I see any Flycatcher or Red-backed Shrike; I 

 suppose it was too early for their arrival, even so far south as Bordeaux. In 

 all I made a list of seventy-three species, which I was able to identify, and 

 it might perhaps have been increased if a good deal of valuable time had 

 not been wasted in taking shelter from the heavy storms which we encoun- 

 tered almost every day. — H. C. Platne (Clifton College). 



Nesting of the Bittern in Hants. — The Rev. A. A. Headley has 

 lately shown me an egg which is undoubtedly that of a Bittern, Botaurus 

 stellaris. He obtained it of a working man in Alresford, who stated that it 

 was taken in Avington Park, some six or seven years ago, and that the nest 

 was built in the stump of a withy, and made " like a Jack Hern's." If the 

 record can be considered indisputable, it is a remarkable one. The Rector 

 of Alresford will, I have no doubt, be glad to submit the egg for inspection, 

 though it is, unfortunately, in a bad state of preservation.— Sutton A. 

 Davies (Winchester College). 



CHELONIANS. 



Emys lutaria turned out in Suffolk.— In May, 1889, we placed 

 eleven Tortoises of this species in a pond situated in a plantation in this 

 parish (Leiston), where for a time they throve, and seemed likely to remain. 

 But before long they began to wander in various directions. The pond is 

 stocked with tadpoles, various aquatic insects and their larva?, but is much 

 shaded by trees ; and possibly this lack of sunshine may have been the 



