303 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



but this is the first instance of it that has come to my knowledge (nor 

 can I find any previous record of it) in respect to the Nightjar. — 0. 

 Pickard-Cambridge (Bloxworth Rectory, Dorset). 



Common Buzzard (Buteo vulgaris) on the Calf of Man. — About 

 20th June last a Port Erin boatman observed a large Hawk asleep on 

 the rocks at Amulty, on the west side of the Calf. He crept up to it 

 and secured it. It was taken to W. Collister, boat owner, of Port 

 Erin, who kept it alive for more than a week, during which it ate very 

 little. On its death it was sent to be stuffed by Mr. G. Adams, of 

 Douglas, who showed it to me. It is a mature bird, handsomely 

 marked. This is the second Manx specimen recorded, the first having 

 been obtained in October, 1902, in the southern part of the main 

 island. — P. G. Ralfe (Castletown, Isle of Man). 



Clocking Hen and Young Partridge. — About a month ago a farmer 

 in this district had some " Clockers " fastened up in a pen, when one 

 morning one of the hens escaped, and was missing for the day. She 

 returned in the evening to the stackyard, accompanied by five young 

 Partridges, which she has brooded ever since. The little things will 

 allow no one to approach them, though they will feed from the same 

 dish as their foster-mother. It would be interesting to know how the 

 old hen came by the young Partridges. In a field opposite the farm- 

 stead a pair of Partridges have bred this year, and the old birds are 

 often seen with only six young. The weather at the time when the old 

 " Clocker " escaped had been very cold and damp. The only explana- 

 tion I can offer is that the five young Partridges had been found by the 

 old "Clocker" in a benumbed condition while scratching about the 

 hedge of the field where the Partridges had their nest, the rest of the 

 brood having gone off with their parents ; and that she had brooded 

 them, brought them round, and then taken them back with her to the 

 farm. — J. S. T. Walton (Sunniside, Stocksfield-on-Tyne). 



Notes on Nest-Boxes. — Our list of tenants during the past season 

 includes the Great Tit, Blue Tit, Nuthatch, Tree-Sparrow, House- 

 Sparrow, Starling, Tawny Owl, and Stock-Dove. On March 13th the 

 Owl had two eggs in a box put up in a yew tree quite close to the house, 

 but deserted them, as the entrance-hole was hardly large enough to 

 allow her to get out easily. However, a brood was brought off later on 

 in an old alder-stump not far away, and we still (August 1st) hear the 

 well-known " kee-wick " of the young birds in the garden every night. 

 There was also a nest in the chureh-tower in the same place, as 

 recorded in ' The Zoologist ' for 1905 (p. 263), which came to nothing, 



