20T 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



!N"otes from Rainworth, IVotts. — Grey Crows y Corviis comix) at 

 Rainworth, Notts. This is always a great place for Grey Crows in the winter, but 

 this year we have more than ever I remember ; my neighbour's keeper counted 

 forty in one field at once, and at night more than sixty fly over the house here to 

 roost in some fir plantations on the forest. 



Peregrine Falcon {Falco peregrimcs), A very fine female was shot at Shelford, 

 near Nottingham. It had struck at a Lapwing, which, to avoid it, settled on the 

 Trent, the stream carrying it down, and the Hawk following. A sportsman seeing 

 this, waited till they came opposite, when he shot the Falcon. It was in beautiful 

 plumage, and about the largest I think I ever remember having seen. 



Great Tits (Panes major). In the summer I wrote to the Natirralist about the 

 Great Tits feeding their young ones on bees. Well, either they have taken to 

 eating them themselves, or the young ones have remembered the delicacy, for 

 since the cold weather, when no bees venture out, they have been trying to get into 

 the hive, and have pecked away a part of the hole, so much so that we have had to 

 put wire to keep them off. — ^J. Whitaker, Rainworth Lodge, Notts.. January 

 22nd, 1885. 



Bird-notes from Nidderdale. — On Friday, Januaiy 30th, a male 

 Scaup Duck {Fidigula fnarila), which had been shot in the wing, was captured on 

 the Nidd, near Pateley Bridge, and brought to me. A few days previously I 

 noticed a pair of the Common Crossbill [Loxia ciirvirostra) in a fir plantation near 

 Pateley. The Ripon ]vluseum contains a pair which were shot at Ramsgill. near 

 Pateley, by Mr. Robinson, of Ripon, several years ago. In September 1855, Mr. 

 E. Yorke shot a Green Sandpiper ( Tringa ochropus) on Heathfield Moor, near 

 Pateley Bridge ; the specimen is still in that gentleman's collection at Bewerley 

 Hall. — Wm. Storey, Pateley Bridge, February loth, 1S85. 



Notes from Whitby. — November 20th, 1884. — Little Grebe [Tachybaptes 

 jiicviatilis) shot near Ruswarp. 



Januaiy 2nd, 1885. — Large Iceland Gull {Lanes leiicoptencs) shot in AVhitby 

 Harbour, by Kitching. Its wings said to measure 6 ft. 3 in. from tip to tip. [Do 

 not the measurements indicate that the bird was a Glaucous Gull? — Eds.] 



January 7th. — Glaucous Qr\x\\.{LanLS glanciis\ ^o'l, stufted by Wilson (immature 

 specimen,). 



January 22nd. — Coot [Fulica aira^, shot by Sunley in Whitby Harbour. 

 January 22nd. — Young Golden Eye Duck [Clangula glaicdon), shot by Thomas 

 Mennell in Whitby Harbour. — Thomas Stephenson, Whitby, Feb. 13th, 1885. 



Birds near Halifax. — In the past summer the various kinds of birds 

 which annually nest in this district have been fairly plentiful. The Moorhen and 

 Sandpiper have both nested, and the Kingfisher has been observed on several 

 occasions. The Grey, and Rays AVagtail, Redstart. Lesser Redpole, Whinchat, 

 Spotted Flycatcher, Whitethroat, Meadow Pipit, Wheatear, Sand-martin, 

 Land-rail, Kestrel, Jackdaw, Tree Sparrow, and Blackcap Warbler, have all been 

 observed in more or less numbers. Skylarks have been very abundant on the 

 moorlands, and Starlings and Missel Thrushes have appeared in considerable 

 numbers. A Common Scoter was recently shot in this locality. — F. G. S. 

 R.\W50N, Thorpe, near Halifax, October 17th, 1884 



Missel TtLrush (Turdus viscivorus). — For the last three years a 

 pair of these birds have placed their nest in the same bough in a hawthorn tree in 

 a place known as ' Welton Vale,' though in each of the three cases the eggs were 

 taken. In the first two years the hen laid again after all her eggs had been robbed, 

 in one case even after the first eggs had been broken in the nest. Is this behaviour 

 usual on the part of birds of this genus?— H. Wallis Kew, Louth. loth 

 January, 1885. 



Grey Lag Goose in Nottinghamshire. — On the i6th of this month 

 the keeper at Papplewick Hall shot one of these fine birds on a pond there, and 

 Mr. Walter kindly gave it me. This goose ( A user ferns) is now rare, at any rate 

 in these parts, and will be a great addition to my local birds. — J. Whitaker, 

 Rainworth Lodge, Notts., February 23rd, 1885. 

 April iSSsT 



