3Bir£> IRotea for 1913. 
By D. Munro Smith. 
HE Hawfinch (Coccothraustes vulgaris) is often thought to 
X be a rather rare species, but in many, if not all, of the 
southern counties is quite abundant. It is said to have much 
increased of late years, but we have to remember that observers 
have much increased in numbers, during the last fifty or sixty 
years. As proof of its commonness close to the city during the 
breeding season, I found this May four Hawfinchs' nests and eggs 
in a small area between Bridge Valley Road and the Promenade. 
The nests on the Downs are usually placed at a fair height, in the 
upper boughs of a big hawthorn, and made almost entirely of bits 
of wood-bine and little brittle twigs of clematis, lined with fibres 
from the main stems of the latter plant. The curiously-marked 
eggs are laid in the first half of May, and all the nests I found 
this year were found by recognising the twittering the hen makes 
when fed on the nest by the cock. It might be mistaken for the 
noise a young robin makes when fed. 
The Redshank (Totanus calidris). The Rev. F. Blaythwayt, in 
the Victoria History of Somerset, says : " I have evidence that the 
Redshank has nested recently on Stert Island and probably nests 
elsewhere in the county." I had the luck to find a nest and four 
eggs in Somerset within thirteen miles of Redcliffe Church as the 
crow flies. The birds had been known to haunt the spot in 
previous breeding seasons, though the eggs were not found. 
Thev nest in marshy ground usually under a tuft of grass. This 
one was under a tuft, the blades of grass being bent over the nest, 
evidently by the birds. The hen sat pretty closely at times, the 
cock being always pretty close to keep watch. 
Curlews (Numenius arquata). Nested on the Mendips again this 
year, although I was not successful in my hunt for the eggs. 
