430 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



was quite unique in his experience. He considers that white Stoats 

 occur quite as frequently in mild winters as in severe weather. — 

 Julian G. Tuck (Tostock Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds). 



AVES. 



Nightingales in Algeria singing in August. — English ornithologists 

 are seldom in North Africa in August, and it may be worth while to 

 record the fact that on Aug. 31st last the Nightingales were in full 

 song in a ravine at Hammam Meskontine, in Eastern Algeria, at 

 9.30 a.m., and in a blazing sun. This information comes to me from 

 a naturalist friend, the Rev. A. H. Cooke, who had been observing 

 successfully the total eclipse of the sun the day before. Whether this 

 indicates a second or even a third brood in the season, or whether it 

 corresponds to what we call here an autumn song, I will not attempt 

 to decide. With us, of course, they breed but once, and I have never 

 seen a record of Nightingales singing after June. I have heard them 

 in full song on the Lago Maggiore in the first week of July, and it 

 would seem that the further you go south the later they can be heard 

 singing. — W. Wakde Fowler (Kingham, Chipping Norton). 



Breeding Habits of the Great and Blue Tits. — With regard to 

 Mr. Jourdain's note on this subject (ante, p. 309), I have never known 

 a case of the Great or Blue Tit rearing two broods in the year. In my 

 experience none of the Panda are double-brooded, at any rate in the 

 north-west of England. I agree with Mr. E. P. Butterfield that the 

 question of some of the resident birds breeding twice is open to doubt. 

 Take, for instance, the Mistle-Thrush and Chaffinch ; both these are 

 undoubtedly only single-brooded in this district, though very excep- 

 tionally they may rear two broods in the season. — S. G. Cummings 

 (Chester). 



White Wagtails in Autumn in Cheshire. — Very little appears to be 

 known in this country about the autumn migration of the White Wag- 

 tail (Mntacilla alba). It may, therefore, perhaps be worth recording 

 that on Sept. 3rd Mr. C. Oldham and I saw at close quarters four birds 

 of this species on the Dee marshes at Burton, Cheshire. Two were 

 adults in winter plumage, and two were presumably young birds of 

 the year. A few days later I saw a solitary adult bird in the same 

 locality, in the company of a few Pied Wagtails. — S. G. Cummings 

 (Chester). 



Late Martins' Nests. — What is the latest date on which Martins 

 have been observed feeding their young in the nests ? They seem to 



