NOTES AND QUE HIES. 511 



pick out not only the egg of Briinnich's Guillemot, but also that of the 

 Ringed Guillemot, from a basket containing eggs of the common bird. 

 Needless to say he was found wanting. Mr. Potter mentions the late Canon 

 Atkinson. I am glad to say that the author of • Forty Years in a Moorland 

 Parish ' is still hale and hearty, and I had the pleasure of a long talk with 

 him not many weeks ago at his home in Danby in Cleveland. — Oxley 

 Grabham (Chestnut House, Heworth, York). 



Nesting of the Great Plover.— While crossing a nesting ground of 

 the Great Plover in Lincolnshire, on June 7th last, I chanced to run 

 against a nest containing four eggs, two rather larger and longer than the 

 other two, thus having the appearance of belonging to two hens. The eggs 

 were quite warm, and on my approaching the nest a Great Plover rose 

 about eighty yards beyond it. — R. U. Calvert (Ascott-sub-Wychwood, 

 Oxford). 



Black-winged Stilt in Somerset.— I have recently received a present 

 of a specimen of the Black-winged Stilt, shot at Sedgmoor in July, 1896, a 

 distance of four miles from here. The gentleman from whom I obtained it, 

 and who had it in the flesh — Mr. C. Hooper, taxidermist, of Wells — thought 

 it was some species of Snipe. The legs are about ten inches in length. 

 This is, I believe, the first mention of the bird from Somerset, and the 

 second from the West of England, one having been reported from Anglesea 

 by Montagu. I shall be happy to send it for any naturalist's inspection. — 

 Stanley Lewis (39, High Street, Wells, Somerset). 



Roosting of the Swift. — Apropos of Mr. Gyngell's letter in last 

 month '8 * Zoologist' (p. 468), a friend of mine, when standing outside the 

 house one evening at about eight o'clock, saw a Swift fly up and settle flat 

 against the wall just under the eave. He watched it for some time, but 

 it never moved. These birds evidently roost in this position, for which 

 the forward-pointing hallux and toes of all the same length are well fitted. 

 The Swifts did not leave the Norfolk coast till about Sept. 5th, but from 

 the end of August till then were flying about along the cliffs in considerable 

 numbers. — Bernard Riviere (82, Finchley Road, N.W.). 



Wonderful Egg-producing Powers of the Wryneck.— A friend of 

 mine discovered the haunt of a pair of these birds, lynx torquilla, in a 

 plantation at Farnborough, in Kent; he had noticed them going and 

 coming from an old decayed plum-stub about 5 ft. 6 in. or so in height. 

 Not being able to see far down the hollow limb, he broke a strip away, which 

 fortunately snapped off at the very bottom of the hole, a distance of fully 

 two feet. When first found, on May 23rd, 1897, there were seven eggs 

 lying on the bare wood, which he took, afterwards replacing the strip in 



