Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/55

Rh Bath, by invitation, I spent a delightful May day in 1897 with this species. Having procured the assistance of the gamekeeper, I was rowed to where the rushes grew, and examined a dozen or more nests, nearly all containing eggs; one with four eggs in it, I remember distinctly, would have been difficult to find by anyone but an experienced ornithologist, on account of the eggs being almost hidden from view by the decayed portions of the rushes. They had without doubt been carefully concealed by the parent birds, and probably by the female after depositing her egg. This nest, or rather more than receptacle for the eggs, was situated on one of the fallen and collected masses of reeds, &c., in the centre of the lake, and had I asked my companion I do not think he could have pointed the exact spot where the eggs were. At the several nests around the never-failing springs in the neatly arranged gardens of the Bishop's Palace, Wells, I have never found the eggs concealed. As a brief summary, I conclude that until the full clutch of eggs is laid they may or may not be hidden, according to the abundance of Jays or Magpies in the neighbourhood; but after incubation has commenced it would be an exceptional case to find the eggs concealed, by reason that the sitting bird would not absent herself long enough from the nest to allow of the visitation of an egg-sucker, although I have, in company with the above-mentioned keeper, watched a Magpie for hours, perched immediately over a sitting Pheasant, waiting patiently until the time arrived for her to feed.— (Wells, Somerset).

Mr. Hewitt asks for the experience of others with regard to the Moorhen's nest. May I state that I have never seen any covering over the eggs of this bird, though I have found numbers of nests in my own and other counties? I see no suggestion of such a habit in 'Yarrell' or Howard Saunders's 'Manual.' But in Seebohm's 'History of British Birds' (vol. ii. p. 561) there is this statement:—"The Waterhen generally covers her eggs, when she leaves the nest, with pieces of surrounding vegetation."— (St. Anselm's, Bakewell).

Little Bustard and Great Shearwater at Lowestoft.—Early in May, 1898, a male Little Bustard (Otis tetrax), in full summer plumage—a condition in which it is very rarely met with in this country, and the first instance known to me in the eastern counties—was killed at Kessingland, near Lowestoft, Suffolk. For obvious reasons the event was not made public till after the close-time had expired, when a photograph of the bird was sent to me. On the 14th November, 1898, the fresh skin of a Great Shearwater (Puffinus major), which had been brought in by one of the Lowestoft fishing boats, was sent for my inspection by Mr. Bunn of that town, who also had three live Storm Petrels about that time. Both the above-mentioned birds are now in a local collection.— (Norwich).