BOUGH NOTES ON DERBYSHIRE ORNITHOLOGY. 61 



were at least four on the pond at Sudbury Hall later in the 

 season. 



June 19th. — Watched a Spotted Flycatcher feeding young 

 in a nest behind a bend in a rainwater pipe, quite twenty-one 

 feet from the ground. Nearly all the nests I have seen have 

 been about half this height. 



21st. — Explored several osier-beds near Egginton, and 

 found seven nests of Eeed Warblers, with eggs or young. All but 

 one were in forks of osiers from three to six feet from the ground ; 

 the seventh was slung between two stems of the common dock, 

 and was about two feet three inches high. None of the nests con- 

 tained Cuckoos' eggs, although no fewer than six were found in 

 one osier-bed in 1902. Cuckoos were, however, scarcer than usual 

 in South Derbyshire ; the only eggs I heard of were both laid 

 in Hedge Sparrows' nests. 



22nd. — Professor Barker reports having seen three Fieldfares 

 to-day in Monk's Dale and heard their peculiar "chacking" 

 note. While botanizing in August, he, on two occasions, saw 

 these birds again, and once heard one. 



On June 23rd a splendid Honey Buzzard was shot by a 

 keeper at Allestree, near Derby. I saw this bird for a few 

 minutes while in Mr. Adsetts' hands. The colouring of the 

 upper parts was uniformly ashy brown, while the breast, tibial 

 tufts, and underwings were beautifully barred. Unfortunately 

 the sex was not ascertained, but I believe it to have been a 

 hen — possibly the mate of the male which had been killed in 

 Nottinghamshire not long previously.' The feet were covered 

 with earth, as is often the case with this species. 



28th. — The Bev. F. F. Key reports a white Blackbird and a 

 dove-coloured Thrush from Egginton. A nest of the Lesser 

 Bedpoll, found on the 27th, contained six eggs, rather an 

 unusual number. While looking over the collection of a friend 

 I was surprised to notice a beautiful set of five eggs of the Grey 

 Wagtail, taken on June 8th in Staffordshire, which were of a 

 distinctly reddish type, about the colour of normal Kobins' eggs, 

 but with a reddish hair line at the big end. As far as I am 

 aware this variety has not been previously met with in England, 

 although known on the continent, since Dr. E. Bey refers to it 

 in his work on the Oology of Central Europe (p. 279), 



