140
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
supperless to bed, and then awaking hungry and cold had been
compelled to seek a meal before its usual time in the twilight."
Lesser Redpole nesting in Essex—I see from The Birds
of Essex that the Lesser Redpole (Linota rufescens) is not usually
found in Essex in the breeding season. This year (1912) I have
had a pair nesting on a low bough of a Scotch Fir by the side
of a road-way. I have the nest and four eggs, as the birds
forsook it. There was another pair in the same locality, though
I did not succeed in finding the nest.—Charles E. W. Hawkins,
Old House, Great Horkesley, 12th May 1912.
Peregrine Falcon at Birch.—Mr. Walter B. Nichols writes
under date 30th October 1912 :—"I am sending you by parcel-
post a Peregrine Falcon, just shot by me at Birch, near Col-
chester. I hope that it may be acceptable for the County
Museum collection.''
Miscellaneous Bird-notes from the Stour Valley.—Our
member, Mr. Walter B. Nichols, J.P., of Stour Lodge, Brad-
field, near Manningtree, from time to time very kindly sends
interesting notes of Bird-life in his district. In December
1911, he sent for the Museum a Red-throated Diver (Colymbus
septentrionalis) and a Little Auk (Mergulus alle). He wrote
that "the Diver was killed on the Stour about 3rd December ;
the Little Auk by Charles Porter on the Hamford Water nearly
opposite Walton Channel. He told me 'that fared a cloddy
little thing, and looked like a tossel of wool on the water, and
kep springing up and settling again.' I have records of three
others obtained in this neighbourhood, one shot in the early
'70's by my father's coachman, near Cattawade Bridge, when
I was a child ; one by Mr. H. N. Dunnett on 1st January 1895,
on the Stour at Lawford, and one brought by Lucas to Mr. R.
Brooks, Mistley, December 1900. The cold spell of a fortnight
ago (beginning of February, 1912) brought a good many Duck
up the estuary of the Stour. My house here is on the edge of the
slope down to the river, and about 90 feet above it. It commands
a very fine stretch of water, both up and down. I have a three-
inch telescope, and have had a great deal of pleasure 'duck-
hunting' with it. My 'bags' have not been very heavy, but
they were varied :—e.g. on 3rd February 1912, 7 Goosanders ;
4th February 9 Whooper Swans, five adult and four juniors, and