186 



The Naturalist. 



Testacella lialiotidea, in garden at Beverley. My attention was first called 

 to this species by Mr. F. Boyes, of Beverley, and specimens have since 

 been kindly procured for me by Mr. Geo. Swailes, from his garden, where 

 he informs me it has been taken from time to time during the last four or 

 five years. I am not aware that this species has been previously recorded 

 for the East Riding. Zonites purus var. MargaHtacea, Westwood, Bever- 

 ley. — J. Daeker Butterell, Beverley, 



The Nightjar. — I am interested in Mr. Butterfield's remarks as to 

 the relative sizes of his young nightjars, as I have several times seen 

 their nests, if " nests " they may be called, and I believe in every case 

 one young one was bigger than the other. It would be curious if this is 

 always so. I do not find it stated in any account of the nightjar, but it 

 is well known to be the case with the barn owl, though that certainly is 

 a very different bird. Dr. E. A. Brehm and other ornithologists say 

 that the nightjar only breeds once a year, but I have seen eggs and 

 young ones so very late, that I have not the slightest doubt it frequently 

 breeds twice. I enclose a sketch of a nightjar, which had young, feign- 

 ing to be wounded, drawn from the bird as it sat on the bough of a 

 Scotch fir. — J. H. Gurney, Northrepps, Norwich. — [We regret we are 

 unable to reproduce Mr. Gurney 's interesting sketch. — Eds. Nat.] 



Notes on Nests and Eggs. — During the past spring the following 

 nests and eggs have come under my notice in the neighbourhood of Loft- 

 house : — Yellow hammer, nest with three white eggs. Meadow pipit 1. — 

 Nest with six eggs. Four were mottled finely with light brown, with 

 a slight zone of darker brown at the larger end ; size, 10 lines by 7. 

 The other two were blotched with two shades of light brown, the blotches 

 aggregated, but not zoned at the larger end ; size, 9 lines by 7. In the 

 ^' Rural Notes/' for 1881, I described a nest of the corn-crake which con- 

 tained two types of eggs. The facts seem to indicate that two females 

 may occasionally lay in one nest. A few years since, a farmer here found 

 a nest containing twelve hen's eggs and ten partridge's eggs, on which the 

 partridge was sitting. Meadow pipit 2. — Nest with four eggs of a 

 uniform dark brown colour, the brown darker, but uniform at the larger 

 end ; size, 11 lines by 8 -: much like the egg of the nightingale. Green- 

 finch. — Nest with four eggs of different sizes. Beginning with the largest, 

 the dimensions were : 10 by 6|, 8 by 5|, 6^ by 5, and 6 by 5 lines. The 

 smallest egg was the size of that of the goldcrest. All the eggs were of 

 the ordinary colour. Chaffinch. — Nest with two eggs ; dimensions, 7 by 5t 

 lines. Nest 2 in. wide, and IHn. deep, composed externally of fine 

 grass stems, moss and spiders' webs, and lined with black and white hair. 

 Projecting obliquely about an inch' above the top of the inside of the nest 

 was a firmly fixed white feather ; this decorative feather was the only 

 one visible in the nest, but the rim was further garnished by several small 

 bits of white paper, spread and glued neatly amongst the moss. The nest 

 and eggs were remarkably small. — Geo. Roberts, Lofthouse. 



