102 THE BIKDS OP HEKTFORDSHIRE. 



214. Slavonian Grebe {Podicipes auritus). — In 1881 one was 

 shot at Radwell, near Hitchin, in January, and another was caught 

 in Sir Astley Cooper's park at Hemel Hempstead in March, 1884. 

 Two were shot at the Tring Reservoirs in October, 1884. 



215. Little Geebe [Podicipes fluviatilis). — Breeds commonly on 

 several of the small rivers in the county. 



216. Stokm-Petkel {Procellaria pelagica). — On 15th December, 

 1881, a male and female were picked up dead near East Lodge, 

 Hemel Hempstead, and on 11th December, 1886, one was captured 

 alive near the Midland Railway not far from St. Albans. 



XL 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



Read at Watford, 28th March, 1899. 



Waff tails feeding a young Cuckoo. — I was much interested in 

 a young cuckoo last summer. Outside my bedroom window, 

 where Virginia creeper grows, T noticed two little wagtails going 

 and coming. On looking out I discovered a nest, and in it was 

 a young cuckoo partly fledged. He looked very fierce. One 

 morning I missed him, but from the noise he made I traced him 

 to a tree on the lawn. I saw the two little wagtails go and feed 

 him. He then left that tree and went from one to another. On 

 returning home at the end of August I still found him flying about 

 and the little birds waiting on him. Towards the end of September 

 he disappeared. — Jessie R. Careio \_Mrs. Russell Carew~\, Carpenders, 

 Watford. 



Curioiis Nesting-places. — At the Station Lodge, Hatfield Park, 

 a water-can was left hanging on a wall last season, and this spring 

 a pair of robins chose it for their nesting-place, and although it 

 is near a garden-path they made their nest in it and now have 

 five young birds hatched. The Lodge-keeper is careful that the 

 birds are not disturbed. — 'Herts Mercury,'' 21st May, 1898. 



A firetail [redstart] has built its nest and is rearing its young 

 in a watering-can which is hanging on the wall of the wash- 

 house at Mrs. Knight's, at Potter's Heath, Codicote. There are 

 continually persons passing by the nest, but this does not appear 

 to disturb the birds in the least. — ' Everts Mercury,^ 18th June, 1898. 



