Bird Notes and News 



103 



all the Waterhens called out ' Crr-ook ! 

 Crr-ook ! ' and my mother looked out and 

 saw them all flying." 



Another competitor, a girl of ten, writes 

 in a paper on the House-Martin : — 



" Early Sunday morning, June 6th, a 

 great shock was felt in this district. I woke 

 up and felt the house shake. I thought it 

 was a Zeppelin. It disturbed my birds, for 

 the noise they made kept me awake, and 

 they seemed unable to settle down, flying 

 around about the rest of the morning. I 

 could see their shadows on my blind." 



It says something for Norfolk children 



that they thus calmly observe the effect of 



Zeppelins on their birds without a word as 



to any alarm of their own. 



* * * 



A more learned observer in Norfolk, 



Miss E. L. Turner, alludes to the behaviour 



of birds on the approach of an aeroplane, in 



the course of a paper on the Long-eared Owl 



in British Birds : — 



" One evening after dark, while the male 

 Owl was still at his post in the fir-tree, an 

 aeroplane circled over the wood. It was 

 curious to note the behaviour of the birds 

 during this disturbance. The Wood-Pigeons, 

 which had come in to roost, rose in a mass 

 and fluttered noisily round and round ; 

 Pheasants crowed and flew to and fro ; all 

 the small birds twittered and called. A 

 Whitethroat and a Willow- Wren began short 

 snatches of song and broke off abruptly. 

 But the Owl, which I could but dimly see, 

 sat tight and showed no fear." 



* * * 



Among curious nesting-sites noted during 

 the past summer, one selected by a pair of 

 Whitethroats at Mapledurham, on the Thames 

 above Reading, deserves the attention called 

 to it by the Observer. The Whitethroat 

 usually builds near the ground in a tangle 

 of herbage, and is extremely jealous of all 

 approach to its well-hidden sanctuary. This 

 pair chose Mapledurham Lock for their 



home. It is a place where people are con- 

 tinually passing, and where even at night 

 the brooding bird must have been occasionally 

 disturbed by the working of the lock. Close 

 to the lock is kept a lifebelt, with line 

 attached, hanging in one of the small wooden 

 erections used by the Thames Conservancy 

 for the purpose, and the birds built on the 

 inner circumference of the belt. The little 

 pair resented intrusion in their well-known 

 way by vehemently scolding their numerous 

 visitors, but made an exception in favour of 

 the lock-keeper, who was reasonably regarded 

 as having a right to watch the domestic 

 proceedings. Happily no emergency called 

 for the use of the belt, and the brood flew 

 safely on July 9th. Under the same roof, 

 against the coils of the rope, a Wren built a 



" cock-nest." 



* * * 



Another species which even more invariably 

 builds on or close to the ground is the Willow- 

 Warbler, whose domed nest is commonly in 

 a bank or in long grass, but now and then 

 low down in a bush or wall. Mr. Kearton 

 tells of one at Dingwall in an ivied wall, six 

 feet from the ground, but this was an 

 extraordinary case, three feet being about 

 the recognized limit. The Dingwall bird 

 has this season been outdone by a pair 

 at Uttoxeter which, as recorded by the 

 Uttoxeter Advertiser of July 7th, made their 

 nest in some ivy in a garden in that town 

 quite eight feet from the ground. 

 * * * 



Some people have curious ways of viewing 

 other matters besides Bird-Protection. The 

 campaign against flies is familiar to everyone ; 

 no one can say that it is unnecessary, though 

 it might be argued that prevention, little 

 discussed, is better than cure. And that, in 



