NOTES AND QUERIES. 479 
of interest. I first observed it on a hill-side named Sunnybank, which rises 
from the back of myjhouse, on June 4th, 1890, when I found a nest con- 
taining four eggs, at the same time identifying the sitting bird as a Cirl 
Bunting. A few days afterwards I heard two male birds of the same 
species in song near the site of the nest. One of these I shot, and it is now 
in my collection. Since that date it has become resident on the above- 
named bank, where it nests yearly, and where I hear its song almost daily 
during the summer. Since that year it has also been gradually spreading 
over the county, and nearly every summer its song is to be heard in some 
fresh locality. It seems partial to hill-sides furnished with gorse and 
isolated elm and oak trees. The following are some of the places where it 
occurs, and probably nests: High Grove, Tallylyn, Sennybridge, and 
Glanusk. I have obtained several specimens for myself and friends ; a pair 
in my collection are in full adult plumage, and a bird which I obtained for 
the Hereford Museum is an immature male with breast colour bands not 
well marked. Of four Cirl Buntings’ nests I have found here two were in 
gorse bushes, one on a bank among coarse herbage, and one in a bramble. 
The eggs in my collection, which I took here from three nests, are all of 
the same type, and have a greenish white ground, boldly marked with 
blackish streaks and spots. They are distinct, and could not well be mis- 
taken for eggs of any other of our birds. The Cirl Bunting is one of our 
most persistent songsters ; its monotonous metallic trill is to be heard from 
about the first week in April to the middle of August. When I first heard 
it the trill seemed to me rather like that of the Lesser Whitethroat; I am 
of the opinion now, however, that the song of the latter is more musical and 
softer. Singing as it does generally near the top of a tree and often out of 
sight, it is. much more easily recognized by the ear than the eye.—K. A. 
Swainson (Woodlands, Brecon). 
Spotted Crake in Furness.—The Spotted Crake (Porzana maruetta) is 
perhaps sufficiently rare in that portion of Lakeland known as Furness to 
thake the occurrence of a couple in the Rusland Valley worthy of record in 
‘ The Zoologist.’ I have searched for this species for a dozen years or more 
here, where Water Rails may frequently be seen, in the confident expectation 
of finding the rarer bird sooner or later. On Sept. 8th I saw two, which 
were shot. They proved on dissection to be male and female, and from the 
orange-red on the bills are no doubt old birds (¢f. Stevenson, ‘ Birds of Nor- 
folk,’ vol. 11. p. 395). Both birds, flushed separately from aquatic herbage, 
took short flights, and were shot as they were just dropping into thick cover. 
The food consisted of several small seeds and finely divided vegetable matter. 
On the wing they do not resemble Water Rails, but are much more like 
tiny Moorhens, and they fly rather fast. Since writing the above, another 
Spotted Crake nas been shot, on Oct, 10th, in exactly the same place, It 
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