ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 201 



mainly by the restraining influence of the Wild Birds Protection 

 Acts, and the restrictions imposed on certain classes by the necessity 

 of taking out a gun license, have been the principal causes leading 

 to a result so gratifying to all lovers of birds. ROBERT SERVICE, 

 Maxwelltown. 



Nesting of the Water Rail (Rail us aqnaticus, L.) in Perthshire. 

 In a corner of a quiet moorland loch in West Perthshire there is 

 a small patch of tall rushes, growing in a floating bog, which is 

 inaccessible except by means of a boat. The place being seldom 

 disturbed, is consequently a favourite breeding haunt of many water- 

 fowl. Here the Pochard, Mallard, Coots, and Moorhens may all be 

 seen nesting within a few yards of one another. On the nth May 

 1889, when landed there, I saw for a moment, a small brown bird 

 creeping through the sedge grass like a rat I felt sure that it was a 

 Water Rail. We searched for the nest that day in vain, and looked 

 for it in each succeeding spring without success, till this year, when, 

 on the 3rd May, it was discovered. It was a neat nest, rather 

 smaller than the Moorhen's, composed of the flat leaves of the sedge, 

 built up to a height of a foot above the oozy mud, and contained 

 seven eggs. One day, when visiting this spot, we came across two 

 Moorhen's nests, one containing twenty-one and the other nineteen 

 eggs, which were lying three or four deep in the nests. Some of 

 the eggs w r ere abnormally small. I was sorry to be unable to 

 return to the place the same year, as it would have been interesting 

 to have learnt the result of the incubation. W. H. M. DUTHIE, 

 Row House, by Doune. 



The Food of the Great Skua (Stercorarius catarrhactes, L.) The 

 opinion of Mr. W. Eagle Clarke that the Great Skua seeks its food 

 in more ways than one is confirmed by the testimony of three 

 excellent ornithologists who had the best opportunities for studying 

 the subject. My father, Dr. Laurence Edmondston, always said 

 that the Great Skua should rank among birds of prey, for nothing 

 came amiss to his rapacious maw. He would swoop on a feeble 

 lamb if very hard pressed by hunger ; young rabbits came not amiss 

 to him and leaping trout were not beneath his notice ; even carrion 

 he did not despise. The Rev. Biot Edmondston, who has a 

 marvellous faculty for taming wild creatures, kept a Great Skua for 

 some years, and he says : " He had an excellent appetite, and was 

 quite omnivorous, anything and everything eatable being gratefully 

 received, from new-caught trout or herring and sheep's liver to cold 

 potatoes and porridge. But I am afraid he did not always confine 

 himself strictly to the fare provided for him ; for it was pretty well 

 known amongst us that several newly hatched ducklings which had 

 disappeared mysteriously had passed into his greedy maw." The 

 reverend gentleman also says he caught mice for his pet Skua, and 

 presented them alive : ten or twelve formed a satisfactory breakfast. 



