230 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THE BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF STAINES. 

 By Geaham W. Kerr. 



(Continued from p. 184.) 



Siskin (Chrysomitris spinus). — Distinctly rare. Its appear- 

 ances are few and far between, and have all been during hard 

 winter weather. 



House-Sparrow (Passer domesticus). — Common. I have 

 been amused at watching the Sparrow driving the Thrushes 

 and Starlings away from the red berries of the mountain-ash. 

 As it does not eat the berries itself, this is done from sheer 

 mischief. 



Tree-Sparrow (P. montanus). — Numbers fluctuate in an ex- 

 traordinary manner. Some years it is quite common, and then 

 again the following year there will be hardly any. This spring 

 it was plentiful, and I came across several nests in the sides of a 

 haystack, a site that surprised me greatly. As a rule the nest is 

 placed in holes in old willow-trees. It is remarkable that there 

 is invariably in every clutch one egg much more lightly marked 

 than the others. To argue that this is the last egg laid, and is 

 due to exhaustion of colour-matter, might meet the case of 

 individual birds, but does not seem sufficient to explain the 

 whole of a species having the same trait. Nor does the fact 

 that the light egg is as often fertile as any other in the clutch 

 point to any loss of power. 



Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs). — Common. 



Linnet (Linota cannabina). — The increase of the Linnet 

 has been the most remarkable feature of our bird-life. Ten 

 years ago in all the country-side there was only one spot (a fine 

 patch of gorse) where the bird could be found, while now we are 

 overrun with them, and every bush and hedge contains a nest. 



Lesser Redpoll (L. rufescens). — In 1903 the Lesser Red- 

 poll bred in the fork of a pyramid apple-tree in my garden. I 



