Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/145

Rh Suffolk (T. Southwell), (ante, p. 31), about five miles from our border, and since added to Mr. Connop's museum. As it has never been obtained in the British Isles in this attire before (though once taken on Heligoland in June), the accompanying reproduction of a photograph may be acceptable. It was sent to be preserved to Mr. Bunn, of Lowestoft, who, in skinning it, noticed that the neck was large, a seasonal dilatation which in some form seems to show itself in the male of all the Bustards, and which is shown in the cut. Three Kentish Plovers on Breydon mudflats (Patterson), and a red or "hepatic" Cuckoo at Hickling (Bird).

1st.—Turtle-Dove caught on a smack (Patterson).

4th.—A pair of Avocets halted at Salthouse (their breeding-place up to 1825) for two or three days (Pashley).

9th.—By skill and dint of patience my correspondent, Mr. Bird, at last watched a Short-eared Owl to her nest, situate in a dry marsh of very wide expanse, doubtless similar to the site chosen on May 2nd, where the pointed rush prevails, and is everywhere higher than a man's knee. A few bents of Carex or Juncus, rather dropped than arranged, constituted the whole nest, which contained only one egg, and on that the female Owl was sitting close as late as 8 p.m.—so close that, being suddenly disturbed, she unfortunately forsook the nest. The nest, such as it was, measured 5 x 6 in., and the egg 1·2 x ·9 in., and by it Mr. Bird picked up two pellets of the bones and fur of a young Water Vole. Another nest subsequently found by Mr. Bird was a forsaken one, containing only a whole egg and a broken one, probably laid by the same pair of Owls. I learn from Mr. Bird that two eggs of the Montagu's Harrier were found at Horsey, and, when searching with him for Owls' nests, we came upon a trodden place in the marsh—in fact, the commencement of a nest—which contained what seemed to be the remains of a dropped or soft-shelled Harrier's egg. The spot was a rough circle within thirty yards of where Mr. Bird found eggs in 1896, and also near to where I was shown a nest in 1883. It is a great pity that these beautiful marsh Hawks continue to be so persecuted, but every man's hand seems to be against them, and I fear the day will come when they and the Owls will be both alike,