NOTES AND QUERIES. 113 



struggle for existence. The distance between the breeding places and 

 winter resorts of the birds would in time become so great as to necessitate 

 a long flight to pass from one to the other, so that when the cold weather 

 warned them of the approach of winter they would set out southwards, 

 some flying direct, others flying by stages and loitering on their way. In 

 the course of time, through being repeated so long, this habit would become 

 an instinct, inherited by the young birds from their parents. The 

 insectivorous birds would have an additional inducement to fly southwards, 

 as the northern insects would be destroyed by the cold, while there would 

 be an abundance of food in the south. It may be asked, why should the 

 birds return to their breeding places in the summer? why should they not 

 remain in the south? This difficulty is, I think, explained by the birds' 

 habit of building in the same place year after year. There are many 

 instances given of migratory birds returning to the same place to build, the 

 birds being marked for identification. Many birds are extremely local in 

 their distribution, and will return to some particular glen, cliff, or wood 

 year after year, although there are plenty of other places, apparently as 

 eligible. After a year's bird-nesting I was so accustomed to find nests in 

 certain places that I could go to them and feel certain of finding a nest. I 

 could tell within a few yards where Blackcaps, Willow Wrens, Redstarts, 

 Whitethroats, Spotted Flycatchers, and other migratory birds would build. 

 Blackbirds, Thrushes, and other birds will build sometimes in exactly the 

 same place year after year, and in some cases by means of a particular 

 mark, such as a white feather in the tail, I have known it to be the same 

 bird. This habit of building as near as possible in the same place every 

 year was the reason why the birds returned to the north in the spring when 

 the breeding-time approached. It is owing, I think, to the birds being 

 driven southwards by the cold of winter, with their habit of returning to the 

 same breeding-place every year, that the instinct of migration probably 

 originated. — Joseph Vine (11 Chester Road, South Highgate). 



Little Auk at Scarborough. — During the last two months several 

 examples of the Little Auk, Mergulus alle, have been obtained near here. 

 One was captured by placing a basket over it as it was resting on the sea ; 

 another taken alive in a garden, in an exhausted state, and soon died; 

 five others were otherwise caught or shot. As I have not heard of the 

 occurrence of this bird near here for three or four years, it perhaps is worth 

 notice. — R. P. Harper (Scarborough). 



Puffin inland in Norfolk. — Is it worth notification in ' The Zoologist ' 

 that a young Puffin, Fratercula arctica, was picked up exhausted, but not 

 starved, at Tattesford, about ten miles distant from the north coast of 

 Norfolk, on February 28th? The occurrence of this bird so far inland is 

 remarkable, inasmuch as there was not, and had not been for several days, 



