NOTES AND QUERIES. 315 



catcher. At a lake (the name of which is not known to me) in 

 Anglesey we accidentally came across a pair of Mute Swans with four 

 cygnets, and these could not possibly have been placed here, as the 

 district is very wild, and all the birds kept away from us. The last 

 two places visited were Llanferfechan and Bwrdd Arthur, in Anglesey, 

 by my friend alone, I myself being unable to accompany him. At 

 the former place he found eggs of Lesser Terns and Ringed Plover, 

 and at the latter place were a colony of Cormorants breeding. Before 

 concluding, I must mention that my constant companion referred 

 to is H. King, B.Sc, of Bangor. — T. Owen (Pen Pare, Bangor, 

 North Wales). 



Notes on Nest-boxes. — During the past season we have had in 

 our nest-boxes, &c, the Robin (three nests in kettles), Great Tit, 

 Blue Tit (several nests of both), Creeper (behind a piece of wood 

 nailed to a birch), Tree-Sparrow (many), House- Sparrow, Starling, 

 Tawny Owl, Stock-Dove. For the first time for many years we have 

 had no Nuthatches, nor did any come to feed in the winter. One 

 box contained nine Tree-Sparrow's eggs at the same time, but when 

 blown they proved to be a mixed lot, some being quite fresh, and 

 some stale. The Tawny Owls, which have bred in the church-tower 

 for the fourth year in succession, had four eggs, and took away two 

 young birds ; but another pair, which nested in an old cask in our 

 grounds, reared four young from their four eggs. The hen in the 

 cask, a very fine reddish-brown bird, was very tame, sfad never once 

 left the nest or even moved when I put a ladder up. When the 

 owlets were about a week or ten days old, she would lie half on her 

 side at the far end of the cask with her family a few inches from 

 her, looking rather like an old Cat with her kittens, and the whole 

 group made one of the prettiest pictures of bird life I have ever seen. 

 The best bag I have seen in either nest was one of four Rats in the 

 one in the tower. Stock-Doves have not done well ; more than one 

 clutch of eggs was destroyed, and a pair of young ones about the 

 size of Blackbirds were killed in the box. This I believe to have 

 been the work of Starlings. A pair of Blue Tits used an old House- 

 Martin's nest on a neighbour's house, where there has been a Martin 

 colony for years. They hatched out their brood, and seemed to be 

 on the best of terms with the Martins around them. Some men 

 hoeing wheat in the adjoining parish of Norton showed me a Snipe's 

 nest in the middle of the field ; probably the wet state of the 

 meadows had driven the birds to a higher and drier site. — Julian G. 

 Tuck (Tostock Rectory, Bury St. Edinunds, Suffolk). 



