Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/457

Rh Gurney's most interesting paper on the Bearded Tit (Panurus biarmicus), ante, p. 358. I do not know how Mr. Bird arrived at the conclusion that there were only thirty-three nests in Norfolk in 1898, and I hope he has understated the number, or that they have increased since then. I know one small broad which has been most strictly preserved for some years, and where even the entomologist is not allowed, though it is sometimes difficult to keep him out! Here the Bearded Tits have increased in a most satisfactory manner. A pair or two might always have been seen. On May 7th, 1899, I found a nest with seven young just ready to fly, and there were at least two pairs with young. On May 3rd this year I saw one nest from which the young had just flown, and I watched both parent birds for some time. It was blowing very hard, and as I crouched in the reeds the male bird settled within a few feet; a beautiful sight it was to see him preening his feathers in the sunlight. On another part of the same broad I saw at least three pairs feeding young, or carrying excrement from the nests; further still I saw other birds feeding in the rushes, and I thought at the time there were at least six pairs on this broad. Quite ten pairs of the Great Crested Grebe (Podicipes cristatus) might have been counted. Over thirty male Wild Ducks rose as we rounded a sharp corner; several pairs of Shoveler (Spatula clypeata) were nesting, and I had the pleasure of seeing a Marsh-Harrier (Circus æruginosus). The keeper assured me he had never seen one of these birds here before. Montagu's Harriers try to rear their young here every year, but the nest is cut out, or the old birds are shot, though this season I have hopes that they got off. A pair of Kestrels were nesting in an old windmill. "They'll 'ave to die," said the keeper. It was no use my telling him that they did far more good than harm, and the fact that he caught two or three of these birds with Mice in their claws at the same spot last season in nowise impressed him; so I took the eggs, in the hope that the old birds might find more hospitable quarters elsewhere. I placed the four eggs in an incubator, and one was hatched in twenty-nine days. I never allow Kestrels to be killed at home, unless caught red-handed at the Pheasant-coops; and it is a curious fact that whereas each year we are obliged to destroy more than one of these birds, a pair of Sparrow-Hawks are continually flying over the rearing-field; neither my keepers nor myself have ever known them touch a Pheasant, though they often take young Sparrows and other small birds that are attracted by the Pheasant food. We never molest them, and I doubt not most keepers would think us quite mad. Whilst in Norfolk I noticed several of those indiscriminate instruments of torture, "pole-traps"; they were not set, and, on asking the reason, I was informed that they had caught five Snipe in them the week previous to my visit.— (Temple Combe, Henley-on-Thames).

Nesting of the Great Tit (Parus major).—April 29th. Nesting-box