NOTES AND QUERIES. 227 



Late Stay of the Fieldfare. — On May 17th I observed a single 

 Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) flying over the Thanet Golf Course. The 

 weather was thick at the time, and the bird had evidently lost its way, 

 for it was calling repeatedly, and making in a southerly direction. 

 This is, I believe, the latest record for Kent. — Collingwood Ingram 

 (Westgate-on-Sea). 



Observations on the Nesting of Rooks. — In ' The Zoologist ' for 

 1901 (p. 191) I contributed some observations on the efforts of a pair 

 of Eooks (Gorvus frugilegus) to build a nest some little distance from 

 the main rookery. Several equally unsuccessful attempts have been 

 made in the meantime. This year, however, six pairs succeeded, 

 after a certain amount of hostility from the main body, in completing 

 their nests, and, as I could watch from my windows the old birds 

 sitting on the nests, I have little doubt that the full complement of 

 eggs was laid. For some reason which I am quite unable to explain, 

 not a single young bird has been reared in any of these nests. I began 

 to suspect some little time since that all was not well with the little 

 colony, as one or two of the nests appeared to be deserted, and I 

 examined the ground below to see whether I could find any traces of 

 their having been disturbed, but there appeared to be nothing un- 

 usual. Once or twice when the birds were sitting I noticed a number 

 of Eooks perched on the adjoining trees ; they did not seem to be 

 over-friendly, but I did not witness any act of aggression. There has 

 been no failure of young birds in the large rookery ; in fact, we have 

 shot more than usual. Following the previous destruction of nests 

 whenever an attempt has been made to establish an outlying colony, 

 the facts appear to be very extraordinary. — E. H. Eamsbotham (Elm- 

 hurst, Garstang). 



Stone Curlew (CEdicneinus scolopax) in Bedfordshire. — This bird 

 was observed by a friend and myself at Sandy on May 15th last. It 

 was frequenting an area of market-gardening land between the roads 

 leading to Everton and Potton, and what was formerly a portion of 

 Sandy Heath. At this date it was more probably a wanderer from 

 some other locality than a belated migrant resting on passage. Years 

 ago the Stone Curlew nested not uncommonly on the Downs on the 

 southern portion of the county, but the last nesting on record was 

 about 1890, when two young that had a quantity of down still adher- 

 ing to their feathers were shot between Luton and Dunstable. Since 

 then but two other county occurrences can be given of this bird — 

 one in 1891 was killed near Dunstable, and another, which I saw in 

 the taxidermist's hands, had been killed from a ploughed field on 



