69 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



The Lesser Shrew and Bank-Vole in Suffolk. — As the distribution 

 of the smaller mammals in Suffolk appears to be imperfectly known, 

 the following facts may be of interest : — In 1893-94 I found the Bank- 

 Vole (Arvicola glareolus) not uncommon in the plantations and woods 

 of Huntingfield (North-east Suffolk). On April 25th, 1901, while on 

 a short visit to the same place, I took about twenty-one pellets of the 

 White Owl (Strix flammea). These were afterwards analysed by Mr. 

 Lionel Adams, and amongst the skulls identified were twelve of the 

 Bank- Vole and two of the Lesser Shrew (Sorex minutus). The latter 

 species has, I believe, been only taken previously at Blaxhall, in East 

 Suffolk. A small series of twelve pellets from an old willow at Great 

 Thurlow (West Suffolk) also contained a single skull of the Lesser 

 Shrew. Probably further research will prove that it occurs in small 

 numbers throughout the county. — Fkancis C. R. Jourdain (Clifton 

 Vicarage, Ashburne, Derbyshire). 



AVES. 



Nesting Sites of Blackbird and Song-Thrush.— The note by Mr. E. 

 H. Read in the current ' Zoologist ' (ante, p. 23) is of considerable 

 interest to me, and I have been looking up my notes of abnormal 

 nesting-sites. There is a particular locality in one of my nurseries 

 where for a long series of years past I find almost annually one or 

 more nests of Blackbirds and Song- Thrushes placed right upon the 

 ground. These have all been found within a piece of land not more 

 than one hundred and twenty yards in diameter, and nowhere else 

 within an area which is some twenty acres in extent. The same birds, 

 or their descendants, have stuck to this ground-nesting, otherwise it is 

 difficult to account for. In April, 1889, 1 found a couple of Blackbirds' 

 nests at a distance of about one hundred yards apart. One was built 

 on the level ground at the bottom of a dry stone dyke where a stone 

 had been taken out, and within the little archway thus formed. The 

 other neat was placed midway on the grass slope, of about 18 in. high, 



