I [O 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



brood in a meadow close to the house I was lodging at. The 

 old bird extremely noisy and watchful, and not unfrequently 

 perched on a rail fence. 



Black-headed Gull, Lams ridibundus L. 



About a hundred pairs breed on the bog at the south end of 

 Harbottle Lough. I saw no young birds on the lough during 

 my visits, but very frequently came across the broken eggs on 

 the moors, where they had been carried by Carrion Crows, which 

 always seemed to be foraging about the locality : so it is probable 

 very few get off. 



Lesser Black-backed Gull, Larus fuscus L. 



Occasionally obtained ; is not uncommon about the river 

 in pairs in the spring. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



Occnrrence of Tengmalm's Owl on the Yorkshire Coast- 

 On the i8th of October last Mr. J. R. Grindell shot a fine specimen of this rare 

 little straggler from North and East Europe, from a tree at Holmpton in Holderness, 

 and sent it to me for my local collection of birds. The wind for two days previously 

 had been blowing from the west with increasing force. — Philip W. Lawton, 

 Easington. 



— Mr. Lawton very kindly sent the specimen for my inspection. It is a mature 

 bird, and the sixth Yorkshire occurrence of Nyctala tengvialmi Gmel.— W.E.C. 



Dotterel (Eudromias morinellus) at Easington in Holder- 



ness. — Seven Dotterel were seen in a tillage field near the mill on the nth of 

 October and again in the same field on the 13th. This species occurs here annually 

 on the spring migration, but I have not noted it here before in the autumn. — 

 Philip W. Lawton, Easington, Hull, Oct. 25th, 1884. 



The Food of Sparrows —Having been asked to collect information on 

 the food of Sparrows for the Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture, with the view of 

 ascertaining whether the good which they do in eating insects and caterpillars and 

 seeds of weeds can be made to counterbalance the enormous destruction of corn, 

 I should feel infinitely obliged to anyone who can give me dated dissections (how- 

 ever few) for any months except July and August, of the crops of Sparrows. It is 

 evident that the solution of the Sparrow question can only be arrived at by a 

 large number of dissections made at different times and in different places ; and 

 when insects are found, which in adult Sparrows is very seldom, by obtaining the 

 assistance of a competent entomologist to name them. Insects are so quickly 

 assimilated in adult Sparrows that there is no chance of finding them in the gizzard, 

 except fragments of beetle cases, but they might doubtless be found in the crop, 

 though I cannot say that I have found any. If the gizzard be also examined the 

 microscope or magnifying glass must be used ; but I agree with Colonel Russell, of 

 Romford, who has paid so much attention to the Sparrow question, that if 

 there is no food in the crop an adult Sparrow is scarcely worth opening, but the 

 case is very different with young ones. Digestion is quick in the Sparrow, and 

 birds taken at night with nets are far less likely to contain anything in their crops 

 than birds shot in the day. After sending in my return to the Chaitiber of Agricul- 

 ture, I propose to print the results of the investigation in one of our Natural 

 History journals, when due acknowledgment will be made to any who have been 

 kind enough to assist in what is really becoming now a very important question as 

 concerns our farmers. — ^J. H. Gurney, jun., Hill House, Northrepps, Norwich. 



Naturalist, 



