NOTES AND QUERIES. 221 



indications of youth, and not of sex." On the presumption, then, that the 

 dark birds, which comprise our ordinary autumn flights, are all birds of the 

 year, these markings should be very distinct and uniform. I have not 

 found this to be the case. In some, the quill-markings are clear and 

 perfect enough, but they appear to run through various stages to complete 

 obliteration, the outer web of the feather becoming at last light coloured 

 and uniform in old birds. At what period the final stage is reached, 

 nobody can say. It is sufficient for our purpose to know that, tested by 

 the notch-markings on the first primary, the birds shot from our big 

 autumn flights, with the same character of plumage, are certainly not all 

 of the same age. Another fact, which militates against Mr. Grant's theory, 

 is that during their stay with us they do not appear to lose racial 

 distinction : rufous they come, and rufous they depart, and are readily 

 distinguishable as such. Only on March 26th last I flushed a little red 

 cock from under a laurel in the garden, evidently a pilgrim on his return 

 journey. There is certainly no reason why examples of both races, 

 supposing such exist, should not be obtained in widely separate countries. 

 It is not improbable that their nesting-quarters may considerably overlap; 

 both certainly are notoriously birds of passage, and might turn up 

 anywhere. — John Cordeaux (Great Cotes, Ulceby). 



Attacks by Owls. — A few days ago I had a novel and somewhat 

 unpleasant experience of the way in which the Tawny Owl resents an 

 approach to its nest. About three weeks ago I found in an old dead elm a 

 nest containing three young and two eggs, which we much hoped would not 

 be disturbed, as till last year this bird was not known to breed here. One 

 bright moonlight night I was standing close to the trunk of the tree, 

 watching for the return of the birds with food for the young. Presently 

 one of the parents perched on a tree a few yards away, uttering a peculiar 

 whining cry, and in a minute or two dashed straight at my head. The blow 

 inflicted was very like that of a moderately hard snowball, and putting up my 

 hand I found my forehead bleeding freely from several places, while my cap 

 (a soft grey woollen one) was carried off as a trophy, and found the next 

 morning under a tree about seventy or eighty yards away. Since then I 

 have given my proteges a wide berth after sunset. A similar instance is 

 recorded in 'The Zoologist * for 1888, p. 351.— Julian G. Tuck (Tostock 

 Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds). 



Notes on Birds' Nests.— On April 26th I found a Pied Wagtail's 

 nest with one egg in an ivy wall in our garden, and visiting it on May 1st 

 was surprised to find nine eggs, evidently the produce of two birds. The 

 nest now contains ten eggs. Last winter I had an old beech stump, about 

 eight feet long, sawn off, in which there was a Woodpecker's hole, occupied 

 last year by Starlings. This has been planted in the ground near the 



