

NOTES AND QUERIES. 313 



Rostrevor, Co. Down. Several instances of a second brood having been 

 reared are given in Thompson's ' Natural History of Ireland,' vol. ii. p. 247. 

 It is curious to read the account of this bird's first nesting in Ireland, 

 given in the last-mentioned work. It appears that the earliest record is 

 fifty-six years ago, when a pair bred in the Co. Antrim in 1834. Since 

 then there are records of its having done so in Armagh, Carlow, Down, 

 Queen's County, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford, and Wicklow. No 

 doubt it has nested in other counties also. The Woodcock is common in 

 this neighbourhood throughout the year : an evening is an exceptional one 

 when I do not see one or more birds on the wing. I always know when 

 one is coming by its peculiar clicking note, which once heard can never be 

 forgotten. — William W. Flemyng (Clonegam Rectory, Portlaw, Co. 

 Waterford). 



Dunlin breeding in Co. Wicklow. — It may perhaps be worth 

 recording that on May 27th I found the nest of the Dunlin on the Wicklow 

 Mountains near the source of the Liffey. Here is a vast' extent of wild, 

 swampy moor, perhaps, on an average, 1700 feet above the level of the sea, 

 and surrounded by the highest summits of the North Wicklow Mountains. 

 The bog is studded with small ponds of peaty water, and is mostly covered 

 with moss, mixed with stunted heather and patches of cotton-grass or 

 rushes. The Golden Plover and Curlew breed on these moors, and not 

 far off are precipices containing eyries of the Peregrine and Raven. While 

 crossing the bog, threading my way with some difficulty among the marsh- 

 pools, I saw a Dunlin perched on a moss-tussock. After searching the 

 spot for some minutes, I almost trod on the sitting female, who fluttered 

 away just at my feet, leaving her nest, with three eggs a good deal incubated. 

 The nest was merely a hollow in the moss, surrounded by a few bents and 

 lined with scraps of grey moss and little bits of heather-stems. Mr. More, 

 in his 'List of Irish Birds,' only mentions the Dunlin as breeding in the 

 West and North of Ireland. — Allan Ellison (Trinity College, Dublin). 



Wood Pigeons in the London Parks. — Since I wrote you two years 

 ago respecting the Wood Pigeons in Hyde Park (Zool. 1888, p. 389) their 

 numbers have so increased that I have given up all idea of counting them. 

 I notice, however, this year, that a good many more of the fancy Pigeons 

 come to feed with them on the lawn ; and as a result of this, apparently, 

 there is a young hybrid bird to be seen, evidently a cross between a Wood 

 Pigeon and a fancy one. This bird, which is very tame, and which — with 

 one or two other wild birds — will come and take white peas out of my hand, 

 retains the sedate walk of the Wood Pigeon, but the plumage is very 

 peculiar, especially on the back, rump, and upper tail-coverts. The tail is 

 black and rather squared, and the head and beak light and rather small. 

 To-day, after the rain, I counted a dozen Rabbits at feed in the dell ; also 



ZOOLOGIST.— AUGUST, 1890. 2 A 



