194 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



month (April) a Woodcock's nest was found in a wood in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Orlestone, Kent. It had four eggs, which had to be taken, 

 as the wood was being cut ; they were all fresh and easily blown. 

 Another nest was found with five eggs, which have been since hatched, 

 and the young birds gone off. One of my keepers informed me that 

 there was still another pair of Woodcocks about, and he supposed they 

 must have a nest. We shot thirty-five Woodcocks last season, and left 

 several in the hope that they would stay and breed. When shall we 

 get a History of the Birds of Kent? — R. J. Balston (Springfield, 

 Maidstone). 



Variation in the Guillemot. — Mr. Saxby, in his very interesting 

 " Ornithological Notes from Shetland," speaks of being puzzled by the 

 black plumage of a Common Guillemot obtained last January, and 

 that the Bev. Julian G. Tuck, to whom he sent the specimen, thinks 

 it may be a hybrid between the Common and Briinnich's. I think 

 they are both mistaken as to its being a hybrid, for I believe that the 

 dense black-coloured plumage is the normal coloured winter plumage 

 of the Common Guillemot. The first winter specimens of the Common 

 Guillemot that I obtained in the month of December, for several years, 

 also puzzled me, for, never before having seen one in that coloured 

 plumage, I thought I had got a Briinnich's until I observed the slighter 

 bill. Since then all the specimens that have come under my notice in 

 winter invariably exhibit this black plumage, quite as deep and pure 

 a black as that of a Bazorbill or Briinnich's. I met with several 

 specimens this winter thrown up dead on the sands of Enniscrone, and 

 all were pure black-coloured, none showing the least trace of the sooty 

 brown of summer. — Robert Warren (Moyview, Ballina). 



Birds killed by Ticks. — In reference to some previous notes under 

 this heading (ante, pp. 108 and 155), I may say that unfledged nestling 

 birds seem not unfrequently to suffer from the attacks of midges. I 

 have noticed this especially in the case of young Greenfinches, which 

 are often rather late in the summer in their nests, in shrubberies and 

 gardens where midges are likely to be troublesome. I have seen these 

 small but bloodthirsty insects satisfying their hunger from the bare 

 bodies of the unfledged birds, and afterwards crawling about the nest 

 distended with blood and unable to fly away. Indeed, the death of 

 the nestlings has sometimes seemed to be attributable to no other 

 cause but this. — Allan Ellison (Watton, near Hertford). 



