NOTES AND QUERIES. 191 



Ireland. — A common bird in Ireland. In Co. Wicklow it is very 

 numerous, and I used to find a dozen nests or more in the season 

 within a small area. In Wexford and Carlow I have found it equally 

 common. In the remoter regions of the west, except in the very moun- 

 tainous parts, it is numerous wherever there are trees or bushes large 

 enough to furnish nesting places ; indeed, in some of the wildest dis- 

 tricts, where trees are scarce, it is the commonest Finch. — Allan 

 Ellison (Watton, near Hertford). 



Goldfinch in Australia and Tasmania. — In reading Mr. J. A. Harvie- 

 Brown's interesting notes on the general decrease of Goldfinches 

 (Carduelis elegans) throughout Great Britain, I thought it would be 

 interesting to know that these little birds are rapidly spreading in 

 other parts of the world ; for instance, in many of the settled districts 

 of Tasmania, especially round Hobart, they are very numerous, and at 

 the present rate of increase will soon spread over that island. Then, 

 again, in the southern parts of Victoria, Australia, they are exceed- 

 ingly plentiful, especially in the gardens round about Melbourne and 

 Geelong, and in the latter city often nest in the elms and other trees 

 that are planted by the side of the street in the suburbs. Linnets are 

 also plentiful, especially in the thick scrub round the shores of Hob- 

 son's Bay, by Melbourne. In the gardens round about Melbourne 

 Blackbirds and Thrushes are numerous and steadily increasing ; for 

 instance, in my own garden this season several nests of both birds 

 were found, and one pair of Thrushes reared two broods of three 

 young each from the same nest, which is not usually the case. The 

 European Starling can now be numbered by many thousands, and 

 large flocks roost in these Gardens every night ; and we wish they did 

 not, as the mess made by about ten thousand birds is very considerable, 

 and when they are moulting the ground is littered with feathers under 

 their roosting-places. — D. le Souef (Director, Zoological Gardens, 

 Melbourne). 



Ravens nesting in Co. Antrim. — In ' The Zoologist ' for 1902, 

 p. 194, I had the pleasure of recording the successful nidification of a 

 pair of Havens (Corvus corax) in Co. Antrim, not many miles from 

 Belfast. Out of a nest of four young birds, I saw three on the wing 

 with the parent birds about the middle of May ; they then disappeared 

 from the district, and were not seen again that season. About the be- 

 ginning of March this year the parent birds returned, and immediately 

 commenced repairing the old nest, which was completed, evidently 

 to their satisfaction, about the 24th ; up to the 26th no eggs were laid, 

 and on the following day I was sorry to find a large piece of an over- 



