birds on the shore only a few miles from the said lake. Also, when was at Llyn Dinas, near Beddgelert, on May 13th, I saw three Great Black-backed Gulls pass over the lake, and go on up the valley, getting very high up in the air. One at least appeared to be adult, and I could see no dark marks on the tails of any of them. If they continued their flight for three miles up the valley, and then for about one and a half up a tributary stream, they would arrive at Llyn Llydaw. But they were perhaps rising in the air to go by a more direct route, crossing the wall of mountain. Llyn Llydaw is about twelve hundred feet higher than Llyn Dinas.—O.V. Aplin (Bloxham, Oxon).
Some Strange Nesting Habits in Holland.—The Oystercatcher, recorded as nesting on turf, is not the only bird in Holland to depart from its usual custom as known with us. The Common Tern, instead of nesting along the seashore, there nests as a Marsh Tern in fresh water, in company with Black Terns, as well as on short turf, in company or close proximity to the Oystercatcher. I have photographs of nests in both positions. The Common Heron, in one "meer" at all events, nests amid the reeds exactly like the Purple Heron, though elsewhere in Holland it nests in trees as in England.—R.B. Lodge (Enfield).
Birds in Nest-Boxes.—The following birds have nested in our boxes during the past season:—Nuthatch, Great Tit (seven or eight nests). Blue Tit, Tree-Sparrow (for the first time). House- Sparrow, Starling, and Wryneck. Going the round of the boxes one day, I found a Dormouse in one, which is nailed to an elm-tree about twelve feet from the ground, and I not unfrequently find Great Bats in them. These are undesirable tenants, as when they get into a box no bird will come there. In one box, the lid of which had been blown off in the winter, I found a Squirrel's nest. We find that our boxes here are most successful when put up at a height of about twelve or fourteen feet.—Julian G. Tuck (Tostock Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk).
PALÆONTOLOGY.
Fossil Vertebrates from Egypt.—I have recently returned from Egypt, where, in conjunction with the members of the Egyptian Geological Survey, I have been collecting vertebrate fossils from the Tertiary Beds of the Western Desert. The most important collection was made during an expedition with Mr. H.J.L. Beadnell, and includes remains of primitive Proboscidians from Upper Eocene and
