NOTES AND QUERIES. 521 



contained four or five Thrush's eggs originally ; so that, as is generally the 

 case, one or two eggs had evidently been turned out by the Cuckoo when 

 depositing its own. This is the only egg of Cuculus canorus I have ever 

 met with in a Song-Thrush's nest, and is at the same time the largest and 

 heaviest. The weight was 62*5 grains ; average weight of Song-Thrush's 

 eggs, 104 grains. The smallest Cuckoo's egg I have ever found was in a 

 Sedge-Warbler '8 nest, and weighed 37 grains ; average weight of Sedge- 

 Warbler's eggs, 22 grains. The usual weight of a Cuckoo's egg is about 

 48 grains. — Robert H. Read (Bedford Park, Chiswick, W.). 



Partridges in Nottinghamshire. — Partridges vary very much in num- 

 bers in Notts; this season on the sands they only represent a fair year, but 

 on the heavy lands they are better, and in large coveys. Notts is becoming 

 one of the very best counties for Perdix cinerea, and very big bags are in good 

 seasons made, and though in years gone by shooting over dogs and walking 

 in line we considered forty to sixty brace a good day, now with driving and 

 turning out Hungarian birds we get 150 to 250 brace, aud do not think 

 very much of anything under one hundred brace. — J. Whitaker (Rain- 

 worth, Notts). 



Pectoral Sandpiper at Aldeburgh.— I bagged a Pectoral Sandpiper 

 (Tringa maculata) at Aldeburgh on Sept. 13th. I flushed it from a tussock 

 in the Thorpe mere. It looked darker and a bit larger than a Dunliu, 

 uttered a somewhat harsh double note, and flew more like a Snipe. The 

 wind was north-east at the time. — E. C. Arnold (The Close, Winchester). 



Great Skua (Megalestris catarrhactes) in Kent. — A female Great 

 Skua was shot on Oct. 4th near the post-office at Dungeness by Mr. G. 

 Bates, and forwarded to me in the flesh. It has been carefully mounted by 

 Mr. Bristow, and may now be seen in the bird collection at the Hastings 

 Museum. — W. Ruskin Butterfield (4, Stanhope Place, St. Leonards- 

 on-Sea). 



Levantine Shearwaters at Scarborough. — On Sept. 13th I had 

 brought to be preserved an immature specimen of Pvffinus yelkouanus, 

 which had been shot in the South Bay here upon that date. It is a bird of 

 the year (a female), and its identity has been confirmed by Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, who has examined the specimen. This is not the first occurrence 

 of this species at Scarborough, an adult male, which was identified by 

 Dr. R. Bowdler Sbarpe, being killed here on Feb. 4th, 1899, although its 

 occurrences upon our coasts are, I believe, of extreme rarity. — W. J. 

 Clarke (44, Huntriss Row, Scarborough). 



Zooh. Uh ser. vol. IV., November, 1900. 2 N 



