. British birds. Birds. OTES. ^'LAND-RAIL " AND "INCREASE AND DECREASE IN SUMMER RESIDENTS " INQUIRIES. We have received a good many schedules relating to these two inquiries (see Vol. VI., pp. 296-311, and Vol. VII, pp. 4-6), but we sincerely hope that many more of our readers will send in particulars. This should now be done without delay, and if the forms have been lost or mislaid others will be sent at once on receipt of a post-card.—Eds. VARIATION IN TONGUE-SPOTS OF NESTLING SKYLARK. When, in 1907 (c/. lUs, 1907, p. 574), I drew attention to the tongue-marks found in the yo
. British birds. Birds. OTES. ^'LAND-RAIL " AND "INCREASE AND DECREASE IN SUMMER RESIDENTS " INQUIRIES. We have received a good many schedules relating to these two inquiries (see Vol. VI., pp. 296-311, and Vol. VII, pp. 4-6), but we sincerely hope that many more of our readers will send in particulars. This should now be done without delay, and if the forms have been lost or mislaid others will be sent at once on receipt of a post-card.—Eds. VARIATION IN TONGUE-SPOTS OF NESTLING SKYLARK. When, in 1907 (c/. lUs, 1907, p. 574), I drew attention to the tongue-marks found in the young of certain Passerine birds, I was under the impression that the pattern of these ornamentations was always fixed, and a constant character in the species that possessed them. This, however, is apparently not the case, for on July 29th, 1913, I found the nest of a Skylark {Alauda a. arvensis) containing fladglings with abnormally marked tongues. Hitherto all the nestling Skylarks I have examined have had (a) a black mark on the inside of the tips of both mandibles, and (6) three very distinct black spots on the tongue, one situated at the apex and the others laterally on the basal half of the tongue (c/. op. cit, p. 575, fig. 13). In the three nestlings I found on July 29th these usually conspicuous basal spots on the tongue were wanting in each individual. Collingwood Ingram. [Dr. C. B. Ticehurst {, Vol. IL, p. 194) and Miss A. C. Jackson {op. cit., p. 196) also specify the tongue-spots of the nestling Skylark as three in number and situated as described above as normal.—^Eds.] UNUSUAL SITES FOR PIED WAGTAILS' NESTS. Eaely in July, 1913, my attention was called to the nest of a Pied Wagtail {Motacilla alba luguhris) built upon flat ground on the edge of a border in a kitchen-garden. It then con- tained three eggs. On July 18th I again visited the spot, and the nest then contained a young Cuckoo about one-third grown, which was being fed by the parent Wagtails. The n
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