NOTES AND QUERIES. 353 



and an incalculable amount of good, suffering the most, since they are 

 easiest to secure. One pair were accused of killing Capercailie and 

 Ptarmigan, and their death-warrant signed ; so I went off to the hills 

 to secure pictures of the nest and specimens of the birds. The nest 

 was full of debris of Mice — Bank- Voles chiefly ; one lay uneaten on the 

 sticks. But, though I rigged up a chicken in a most tantalizing man- 

 ner to try and secure the male bird, neither the cock nor hen, who 

 kept howling from the top of a fir tree, would look at it. The farmer 

 became less convinced as to their destructive propensities, but still 

 eight croners for the four birds form a strong inducement to them to 

 send in the claws to the local landsman (policeman). 



Of other birds, one noted the Brambling, Norfolk Plover, Green- 

 shank, Common Sandpiper, Curlew, Grey Plover, Spotted Flycatcher, 

 Heron, Marsh Tit, Swallow, House and Sand Martin, Kedstart, Whin- 

 chat, Willow- Wren, and many others ; while the note of the Great 

 Black Woodpecker was frequent in the hill-forests, though I never had 

 the luck to see one. The Cuckoo, too, was in full song in July. One 

 could have wished that the pursuit of ornithology had been one's only 

 pastime ; but, since we had travelled for a whole week to catch Salmon, 

 our backs had to be turned resolutely on the woodland glades. — 

 Fkedk. Pickard Cambridge (Wimbledon). 



The Two-barred Crossbill in Nottinghamshire. — I was delighted 

 to be able to add a new. bird to the Nottinghamshire list, viz. the Two- 

 barred Crossbill (Loxia bifasciata). When in Southwell (the smallest 

 city in England, and which contains one of the most beautiful cathe- 

 drals), I called on Henry Schumach, the talented taxidermist. I found 

 him going over an old box of birds preserved by his late father, and 

 amongst them at once "spotted" this rare British visitor. I asked 

 him about it, and he said : "I remember it being shot very well by 

 Mr. Emery, butler to the late Mr. Wyld, of Southwell. He saw it in 

 some big old Scotch firs in the grounds, and shot it, and brought it to 

 my father, to whom he gave it." I then asked him why his father 

 had never mentioned it to me or others. He said he thought it must 

 have been an escaped cage-bird, so stuffed it to put in a case some 

 time, but had never done so. He was at home when the bird was shot, 

 and saw it in flesh when brought in. I had a good look at it ; the 

 claws were sharp, and plumage good ; legs a bit shattered by shot. I 

 have secured it for my collection, and shall value it as a rare British 

 bird. — J. Whitaker (Bainworth, Notts). 



Cirl Bunting in Ireland. — On Saturday, August 2nd, within half a 

 mile of Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal, I watched for some time an adult 

 Zool. 4th xer. vol. IV., September, 1902. 2 E 



