NOTES AND QUERIES. 319 



of the box and lay on the ground under the tree, one broken and the 

 other intact. What marauder had done this is a puzzle. In other 

 boxes we have had Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit (one), Nuthatch 

 (one), Tree-Sparrow (many), House-Sparrow, and Starling. The 

 box used by the Nuthatch had been in the same place for quite 

 twenty years, and fell down when there were two or three eggs in it, 

 but though it was mended up and replaced, the bird did not return, 

 nor did she use another box. Tree- Sparrows have taken more boxes 

 than was desirable, and have greatly increased in numbers during 

 the last few years. The nest can be easily distinguished from that 

 of the House-Sparrow, as it usually contains moss and fresh green 

 leaves, and is much more tidily put together. — Julian G. Tuck 

 (Tostock Eectory, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk). 



Migration of Swifts. — By far the largest concourse of Swifts 

 (Cypselus apus) I have ever witnessed in the Midlands was over the 

 Dowles Valley, near my home, at 6 p.m., on August 9th. My son 

 and I each estimated their numbers at upwards of five hundred birds, 

 and they covered an area in the sky of perhaps half a mile across, 

 and were at an altitude of about 1000 ft. Although the air was 

 charged with insect life, at least at a lower altitude, they did not 

 appear to be feeding, but gathering together for a migratory move- 

 ment. Numbers of them circled out at times to various points of the 

 compass, but they all eventually, but very slowly, passed away south- 

 wards, since when I have not observed any Swifts remaining in this 

 locality. — J. Steele Elliott. 



PISCES. 

 Four-bearded Rockling in the Colne. — Yesterday, July 22nd, 

 1915, in dredging for Oysters in the Eiver Colne, near Brightlingsea, 

 Essex, a specimen of this fish (Motella cimbria) was caught in one of 

 the dredges. Its rarity excited attention from the dredger men, and 

 the manager of the fishery, Mr. Trussell, found there were only four, 

 as he termed them, worm-like appendages to its mouth. When I 

 showed him Day's ' Eishes,' he at once recognized the fish. Unfor- 

 tunately the fish was not preserved, but was thrown overboard again 

 with other rubbish from the dredge. — Henry Lavee (Colchester). 



Behaviour of a Captive Eockling. — The Five-bearded Eockling 

 whose behaviour was described by me in a paper in the May issue of 

 ' The Zoologist ' (pp. 190-193) died on June 10th. I should like to 

 point out that there were no alterations in its behaviour beyond 

 those which were described. — H. N. Milligan, 



