NOTES AND QUERIES. 33 



pretty uniform moorland my experience is that it nests somewhat in 

 scattered numbers ; yet, where there are isolated patches of suitable 

 cover and intervening stretches of unsuitable places, they then congre- 

 gate, and form colonies to meet such contingencies. Two years ago, 

 when I was accumulating evidence on the distribution of this species, 

 Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown informed me (in lit.) that in the Outer 

 Hebrides it nests among marram grass. Mr. Allan Ellison (1905, 

 p. 390) says : " I have .... found the nest on a small patch of bog- 

 land in Co. Down, under a tuft of rushes on a dry spot where tbere 

 was no heath, a place remote from any hill." So that the Twite 

 evidently selects its breeding-site to suit local conditions. With regard 

 to the conspicuous feather-adornment of the nest which Mr. Parkin 

 mentions (1905, p. 432), I am sure that this habit is by no means con- 

 fined to the Twite, whatever purpose such may serve. I have noticed 

 this adornment in the nests of species as diverse as the Twite and 

 Spotted Flycatcher. It is very strange that there is no satisfactory 

 breeding record of the Twite in North Wales. I have had some 

 little experience in trying to substantiate such a record, and I 

 have always been under the impression that if the Berwyn range 

 of hills were systematically searched it would possibly be established 

 as a breeding species in North Wales. The hills there are in many 

 cases heather-clad, similar to the West Eiding hills, though of 

 course the formation is Cambrian, while in the West Biding of 

 Yorkshire the formation, which is heather-clad, is mainly millstone 

 grit. According to Messrs. Coward and Oldham, in their ' Birds of 

 Cheshire,' the Twite as a breeding species in Cheshire " is confined to 

 the hill-country of the east." Its southern limit in England, so far as 

 my knowledge goes, is the Pennine Chain and its lateral ridges. We 

 want more information on the subject. Now that the subject is topical, 

 I should be pleased if any readers of ' The Zoologist ' would give any 

 definite personal information as to the breeding of this species in Great 

 Britain, especially for any record, if there be any, for counties south of 

 Derbyshire. — Bosse Butterfield (Wilsden, Bradford). 



Cuckoos' Eggs in Finches' Nests.— The finding of a Cuckoo's egg in 

 the nest of a Bullfinch, Greenfinch, or Linnet is very exceptional. I 

 venture to say that I examine as many of these nests in a year, as well 

 as the other commoner species, as perhaps any man in England, and 

 have found it once with five Greenfinch's eggs, and once with three eggs 

 of Bullfinch — never in a Linnet's nest. The common foster-parents here 

 are Hedge- Sparrows and Pied Wagtails. I may add that I found this 



Zool. ith set. vol. X., January, 1906. D 



