NOTES AND QUERIES. 429 



end of the previous November. A Little Auk was also received at the 

 same time, taken in an emaciated state on the moors outside Sheffield, and 

 now in the Sheffield Museum. Mr. Storrs Fox obtained a Rook (about the 

 beginning of February) " whose upper mandible was very much elongated, 

 being about l£ to H in. longer than the lower one. This additional part 

 was narrow and curved downwards after the manner of a Chough's beak. 

 The bird was put into an aviary, but was killed by a Rat the same night." 

 The bones of the skull proved to be normal in size and shape, the long tip 

 being composed of horny covering alone. The Chiffchaff was singing in the 

 Ashburne district by March 30th, and Saud-Martins were noticed on April 

 6th. Owing to the mild weather Lapwings began to lay earlier than usual, 

 and eggs were found before the end of March. Long-tailed Tits were 

 exceedingly numerous in the spring of 1899, and more nests were found 

 than in any year I cau remember. The Grasshopper- Warbler was absent 

 from its usual breeding haunts ; generally six or seven pairs are to be found 

 within a radius of three or four miles, but in 1899 and 1900 none of the 

 old breeding places were tenanted. A Carrion-Crow's nest, found on April 

 15th, contained a single egg. The tree showed no signs of having been 

 previously climbed, and on the 20th a single young Crow occupied the nest. 

 As the clutch of the previous year had only consisted of two eggs, perhaps 

 they were the produce of an almost barren pair. Mr. H. G. Tomlinson 

 noticed a Swift at Burton on May 4th, and on the following day Mr. Storrs 

 Fox saw one at Ashford lake. The Swift is perhaps the most regular in 

 its visits of any of the migrants, and often returns literally to the day. 



Under date of April 17th, Mr. Storrs Fox writes that one of the keepers 

 in his neighbourhood saw a Great Grey Shrike " about a fortnight ago.'' 

 He had a shot at it, but it flew away. On May 10th a Dotterel was picked 

 up under the telegraph-wires on the Nottingham road just outside the town 

 of Derby (cf. ' Field,' May 20th, 1899). It was an adult in spring plumage, 

 and, with the exception of those mentioned in ' The Zoologist ' for 1894, is 

 the only specimen recorded from the county during the last twenty years. 

 Waterhens' nests are often built some distance from the ground, but on 

 May 11th I came across one quite sixteen feet up a large chestnut on the 

 shore of Calwich Abbey Pond. Another nest at Yeldersley contained 

 thirteen eggs, but, though they were of much the same type, of cour.-e they 

 may have been the produce of more than one bird. In addition to the 

 breeding places of the Tufted Duck mentioned in ■ The Zoologist,' 1899, 

 p. 476, they have also established themselves at Bradley, a couple of miles 

 to the east, and with a few years' protection would probably become nume- 

 rous in the district. As it is, most of the young birds of the year are shot, 

 and the increase is hardly perceptible. A Willow- Wren's nest at Shirley 

 Vicarage was built in a small dead spruce, three feet from the ground. 



