NOTES AND QUEBIES. 465 



(M. lugubris), could probably be noticed every year in considerable 

 numbers. With regard to the return passage in autumn, I have only 

 two records from personal experience. About Sept. 10th, 1898, 1 saw 

 one not far from Porloch ; and on Sept. 3rd, 1899, I saw an adult and 

 an immature bird near Weston-super-Mare. These dates are con- 

 sistent with Mr. Eagle Clarke's statement that "the return passage 

 commences with mid-August, and is over by mid-September."— F. L. 

 Blathwayt (Lincoln). 



Water Pipit (Anthus spipoletta) in Sussex. — On Oct. 29th, whilst 

 at Eye Harbour, Sussex, I shot a Pipit which flew over my head 

 in company with another, and which proved to be an immature 

 female specimen of Anthus spipoletta. I sent it to Mr. Howard 

 Saunders for identification, and he kindly exhibited it for me at the 

 November Meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club, as I was then 

 abroad. This is, I believe, the eleventh British record, and the sixth 

 for Sussex. Mr. Borrer (cf. 'Birds of Sussex ') mentions four, and the 

 fifth for Sussex was obtained atHollington, Sussex, in February, 1900, 

 and exhibited at a meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club by 

 Mr. N. F. Ticehurst. This species seems to be distinguished from the 

 Rock-Pipit by its whiter breast and under tail-coverts, its slightly 

 browner back, and by having the outer pair of rectrices nearly pure 

 white, as well as a large wedge-shaped white spot on the second pair. — 

 M. J. Nicoll (10, Charles Road, St. Leonards). 



Nesting of the Hawfinch in Breconshire. — The Hawfinch (Cocco- 

 thraustes vulgaris), which appears to be increasing in this county, 

 nested here last summer at least once, and probably twice or thrice, 

 though absolute proof of its having done so is only forthcoming in one 

 instance. Like the Cirl Bunting, which was first discovered nesting in 

 Breconshire in 1890, it is, as a resident, evidently extending its range 

 westward. I am not at liberty to name the exact localities where it 

 occurred last summer, as in one case the Wild Birds' Protection Act 

 was infringed, and there are other reasons for not doing so. The nest 

 which was found was situated in the west of the county, in an orchard 

 adjoining a large garden where peas are extensively grown. This is, 

 no doubt, the most westerly point in Wales, and possibly in Great 

 Britain, where the Hawfinch has so far been found to breed. The birds 

 had been previously seen by the finder of the nest about this orchard, 

 and on June 9th last he succeeded in locating it. It was placed on a 

 horizontal branch of an apple tree about fifteen feet from the ground, 

 and contained one typical egg. I went with him shortly afterwards to 

 see the nest, which, viewed from the ground, looked rather like a 



