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4. — FiJiiTHEii Notes on Our Birds. 

 By John E. Littleboy. 

 [Read 13th December, 1877.] 



May I be allowed a few words in addition to the paper I read 

 last month, and also in reply to the remarks of onr ex-President 

 respecting the removal of her eggs by the partridge ? I will take the 

 question respecting the partridge first. I have made inquiry in refer- 

 ence to the particular incident I alluded to, from my informant, 

 Mr. Thomas Procter, of Gaddesden Hoo, and he tells me that the 

 partridge nest he noticed was constructed upon the headland of a 

 fallow ; that, as every furrow was completed, the horses turned 

 round within a few yards of the nest ; and that not only were the 

 eggs gradually removed from it, but that he actually discovered 

 the new nest, not far distant from the old spot, to which the 

 partridge was conveying them. They were all transferred in 

 safety, and in due time most of them were hatched. Mr. Procter 

 was not successful in ascertaining the modus operandi by which the 

 transport of the eggs was effected, but I think that the fact of 

 their removal by the parent bird is placed beyond the question of 

 doubt. I am also informed by the same gentleman of an interest- 

 ing fact respecting the partridge, which is, I think, worthy of 

 record. A few years ago a hay-rick on an adjoining farm was 

 allowed to remain for some time with a few trusses cut out from 

 the top of one of its corners ; on the workmen returning to cut the 

 remaining portion, they found the nest and eggs of a partridge on 

 the ledge previously left. The nest was at least ten feet from the 

 ground. I believe this to be a very unusual occurrence ; it is, of 

 course, well known that partridges build almost invariably upon 

 the ground, and I have never before heard of an exception to this 

 rule. 



In my last paper I mentioned the fact of thirteen brown or 

 tawny owls being driven at one time from a pigeon house at 

 Chipperfield. These birds usually resort to holes or clefts in the 

 trunks of trees, and the fact of their being found in a pigeon house 

 may probably have appeared strange to those who know their 

 habits. I am able, I think, satisfactorily to explain the vagary. 

 These owls had for many years frequented an adjoining wood, but 

 several of the trees which had heretofore supplied them with a 

 home fell before the stroke of the axe. " Necessity knows no 

 law," and in their homeless and destitute condition, they availed 

 themselves, doubtless with a sense of thankful appreciation, of the 

 ready shelter afforded by a neighbouring dovecot. 



Respecting kestrels, I am glad to be able to append an additional 

 fact. I am informed by Mr. "William Copeland that a brood of six 

 young birds was hatched during last summer in the cleft of an oak 

 at Russell Fann. 



