Field Notes, _ 457 



Shearwater in many inland localities this autumn, and notes on 

 a lesser number of Honey Buzzards have been published. x\ll 

 these, together with the Buff on 's Skua— also a bird with a 

 gipsy reputation — are doubtless stragglers from the army of 

 migrants that, each spring and autumn, passes unthought of 

 far above our heads. 



BOVISTELLA PALUDOSA LEV. 



A Puffball new to Britain. 



T. GIBBS, 

 Wirksu^'Orih. 



The Puffball collected on the moors at the Osmotherley 

 excursion and referred to in the ' Naturalist/ November 1908, 

 p. 409, has turned out to be a find of quite unusual interest. 

 Mr. Carleton Rea, to whom I sent the specimens, forwarded 

 them to Mr. C. G. Lloyd, of Cincinnati, U.S.A., and that 

 authority has pronounced them to be Bovistella paludosa Lev. 

 Only one previous gathering of the species in known, that made 

 by Leveille at Malesherbes, France, in 1845 ; of this gathering, 

 two specimens are in the Museum at Paris, and one at Kew. 

 The habitat of the plant appears to be among Sphagnum on 

 moors, and its apparent rarity may arise from the fact that 

 moorlands are little frequented by mycologists. The specimens 

 in this case were found by a member of the ' general naturalists ' 

 party at the excursion. 



♦» 



FIELD NOTES. 



BIRDS. 



Abnormal Nesting- of the Wood = Pigeon. — On September 

 1 2th, 1908, at Great Cowden, in Holderness, whilst walking 

 along the shore under the cliffs, I shot a Wood Pigeon which 

 had flown out of a hole in the sandy face of the cliff, about four 

 feet from the top. On picking up the bird, I noticed that the 

 beak showed signs of feeding young, and also that the front of 

 the hole was well marked with ' white-wash.' So I climbed up 

 to investigate. On inserting my hand, I was astonished to 

 find a fine young Wood Pigeon, nearly full grown, and three 

 warm eggs. There is absolutely no doubt as to the species, 

 as I know the Stock-dove and the Rock-dove. — J. Axderton, 

 Bradford. 



1908 December i. 



