Z NOTES AND QUERIES. 467 
on my uncle’s property above mentioned, but I have heard nothing 
about them recently. A notable feature was the wide, much trodden 
road leading from the hill-top on which the setts were down to a 
spring where the Badgers went to drink at the foot. 
At places on the south coast of Cornwall I have been surprised at 
the readiness with which Otters negotiate the two hundred feet high 
cliffs. They get their living out of the sea at the bottom, but their 
marks are, or were, almost ubiquitous at the top. It seems extremely 
doubtful from what I know of the Grey Seal whether white pups 
ever swam, voluntarily or involuntarily, many yards; and so, unless 
they were born on the mainland (p. 415), it would be extremely diffi- 
cult to explain how they got there! I have seen Ca’ing Whales 
between Holyhead and Dublin Bay, so one would expect them to get 
stranded sometimes on the north coast of Cornwall. — ALFRED 
HENEAGE Cocks (Poynetts, Skirmett, near Henley-on-Thames). 
AVES. 
Aquatic Warbler near Eastbourne (Plate V.).— On Oct. 7th of 
this year I shot an Aquatic Warbler (Acrocephalus aquaticus) on the 
Crumbles. I was attracted by the striking eye-stripe when the bird 
put its head out of a tamarisk-bush. Its legs were light and the tail- 
feathers noticeably pointed. It gave one the impression of being a 
more fragile bird than a Sedge-Warbler. The weather at the time 
was unusually fine and warm; wind south-east. — H. C. Arnoup 
(Eastbourne College). 
Fecundity of the Chaffinch.—My experience in connection with 
the egg-laying capacity of this bird is certainly at variance with that 
of Mr. Ellison as quoted by Mr. Butterfield (ante, p. 428). My note- 
book accounts for one hundred and thirty-two nests of the Chaf- 
finch, all containing eggs, fifty-seven nests having been found in 
Southern England and the remainder in Yorkshire and Lancashire. 
On no occasion have I found more than five eggs in a nest ; less than 
five, however, is not a common clutch. But Ihave found clutches of 
six eggs on one or more occasions in nests of the House-Sparrow, 
Linnet, Lesser Redpoll, Bullfinch, and Greenfinch; the last-named 
species, in my experience, most frequently of all finches that I know 
exceeds the clutch number of five. I have on one occasion found a 
Greenfinch’s nest containing seven eggs. — WALTER GYNGELL (Scar- 
borough). 
Short-eared Owls nesting at Rainworth.—During last autumn and 
winter we had seven or eight of these birds (Aszo acczpttrinus) in each 
