Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/236

214 early nesters; last year I saw a nest with seven eggs in on May 1st, and this year on the 25th April I found another with the like number. I have usually found the nest three or four feet above the water, in a hole some eighteen to twenty-four inches in depth, invariably sloping upwards. The eggs are, I believe, always seven in number, and are deposited in a hollow at the end of the burrow, upon a quantity of ejected fish-bones, somewhat like isinglass. A small number of fish-bones will probably be found outside the hole, and very often the droppings of the old birds will be seen on the ground underneath a friendly perch. I have noticed that the hen bird sits very closely, and I have nearly always found her on the eggs when my hand reached the end of the hole. The nest 1 found on the 25th April last was situated in a bare bank, about four feet above the water, in a swift brook running through a "spinney." Some ivy hung over the bank and slightly concealed the nest. Just beside it, in a straight line with it, were three other Kingfishers' holes, all of which have, to my certain knowledge, been inhabited in past years. On enlarging the aperture I was surprised to find that the base of the burrow all the way up was thick with "mutings," and I at once concluded that the young had been hatched. However, on getting to the end, about eighteen inches, I felt the old bird. I pulled her out, smoothed her ruffled feathers, and let her fly. Upon nearly two handfuls of fish-bones were seven eggs, nearly round, and with a beautiful salmon-hue, the yelk showing through the thin shell. I never before knew the hole to be dirty before the young were hatched. Kingfishers could not, I imagine, construct a nest of entwined fish-bones; for the bones of "miller's-thumbs" and minnows, interlaced Magpie-fashion, would scarcely form a habitation large enough for the parent bird to sit on her eggs, let alone the space needed to contain seven young ones.— (Bedford).

—On March 21st I had the pleasure of examining, in the shop of a birdstuffer at Stonehouse, a specimen of the Little Crake, Crex pusilla, which had been captured a few days previously by a cat at St. Dominick, Cornwall. The person to whom it belonged stated that it was brought into the house by his cat, and seeing the bird was a stranger,—being well acquainted with the Corn Crake and Water Rail,—he took it away from the animal and brought it to Stonehouse to have it preserved and learn its proper name. This, however, the birdstuffer could not exactly tell him, never having seen a specimen of the kind before; but, happening to call in just at the time, I was able to decide the question. This example is fully as large, if not larger, than Crex Baillonii, and the few measurements I took of it are as follow:—Bill, from point to forehead, above three-quarters of an inch; wing, from carpal joint to end of longest quill, four inches, full—first quill