breeding purposes. Since then a brood or two has been reared almost every year, and during the present summer (1899) at least two broods have been successfully hatched off. From Osmaston they seem to have spread to neighbouring ponds, and at a private sheet of water not far off they were first noticed about 1889, and have now bred regularly for some years past. Two nests were found only a few yards apart on May 28th and June 1st of the present year, with fifteen and nine eggs respectively. Both these nests were taken, but they began to lay again very soon afterwards, and fresh nests were found on June 6th (eight eggs) and June 16th (eleven eggs). Unfortunately both these nests were destroyed, and it is doubtful whether any birds were reared here this year. Attempts have been made to colonize other likely spots in the district, for they were observed on the Ashbourne Hall pond in the spring of 1892, and one couple certainly bred at Sturston Mill in 1895, and probably also in the following year.—Francis C.R. Jourdain (Clifton Vicarage, Ashbourne).
Grey Phalarope in Co. Armagh, Ireland.—On Sept. 30th I received, from Mr. W. Keatley, a male Grey Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius), young of the year, shot by him on Sept. 28th on the Logan, near Lurgau. It was too damaged to set up, but the back, wings, head, and tail are preserved as a flat skin.—H.W. Marsden (Clifton, Bristol).
AVICULTURAL NOTES.
The Colour of the Iris in the Jay.—In all books that I have consulted which deal with British Birds, the iris of the adult Jay is said to be pale blue; and Howard Saunders, in his 'Manual of British Birds,' states that the young bird differs in having brown eyes. Towards the end of May, 1898, I had a young Jay given to me; it had been taken from the nest about a fortnight previously (with three others). When it came into my possession its irides were silver-grey, and this colour they retained until the second moult (in August of the present year), when they gradually changed to vinous brown. The bird is an exceptionally handsome and vigorous male, in every respect so well developed that when its crest is depressed the corners form distinctly perceptible ear-like terminations on each side at the back of the head. Is the colouring of the irides abnormal in my specimen, or has the colouring in young and adult birds been inadvertently reversed by describers?—A.G. Butler (Beckenham, Kent).
