270 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



on the Council, and on the Library Committee, attending the 

 meetings, and taking part in the discussions. But of late 

 signs were not wanting of a lack of the old energy. Premonitory 

 symptoms of paralysis unfortunately appeared, and fatally brought 

 to a close, on the 28th May last, a long and most useful scientific 

 career. 



Mr. Dallas married, in 1850, a daughter of Mr. Liscombe 

 Price, of Abergavenny, by whom he has left two daughters and 

 four sons, one of whom is worthily following in his father's 

 footsteps as a naturalist in the Albert Memorial Museum at 

 Exeter. 



NOTES AND QUERIES, 



BIRDS. 



Erroneous Record of the Gull-billed Tern in Ireland.— Mr. Robert 

 Patterson, of Belfast, has forwarded for my inspection an immature specimen 

 of the Arctic Tern, Sterna macrura, Naum., which is, as he informs me, 

 the identical bird which was recorded by Prof. Cunningham as a Gull-billed 

 Tern (8. anglica, Mont.), in ' The Zoologist' for 1887, p. 433. Inasmuch 

 as, trusting to Prof. Cunningham's determination, I inserted this record in 

 my ' Manual of British Birds,' p. 623, 1 shall be obliged by the publication 

 of this correction. — Howard Saunders. 



Nesting Habits of the Sky Lark. — Though I cannot profess to offer a 

 complete answer to Mr. Laws' inquiries (Zool. 223), yet a few observations 

 of mine may perhaps throw some light on the subject. I have from time 

 to time found some dozen nests of the Sky Lark, and yet in no case have 

 I seen five eggs, four being the most usual number, and three quite 

 common. Probably with the Sky Lark, as well as with other birds, the 

 number of eggs varies slightly according to locality and season. The period 

 of incubation may very well be shorter than is generally supposed, and the 

 matter is worth looking into. Most small birds sit for about a fortnight, 

 but, from a large number of observations, I am convinced that the Chaffinch 

 for one only broods for eleven days, and it may well be that the period in 

 the case of others is equally short. The Thrush and Blackbird, I find, 

 incubate for exactly fourteen days. Other instances, also, of variation in 

 number may be quoted. Yarrell, Seebohm, and all other writers on 

 Ornithology whom I have consulted, give the Yellow Bunting credit for 

 laying five eggs ; but certainly in the Co. Wicklow, where my experience 

 mostly lies, it does not. Probably I have examined hundreds of Yellow 



