56 



BIBD NOTES AND NEWS. 



the originality shown in the following notes 

 on the nesting-period gained first and second 

 places for the papers from which they are 

 taken : 



THE LAPWING'S NEST. 



" Any sort of field seems to suit the bird, though, 

 perhaps, its favourites are arable land and low, 

 marshy meadows. But it also nests in heather, 

 and I have once found a nest in growing corn about 

 a foot high. In nesting, Plover seem to be to 

 a certain extent gregarious, as I have found nests 

 containing eggs as close together as six yards, and 

 several nests may generally be found in a field where 

 there is one. This is probably as much due to the 

 suj^eriority of certain fields for nesting as to love of 

 one another's company. In any particular field 

 the nest may be almost anywhere, though as a rule 

 the extreme edge is avoided, but by no means always. 

 In a field ploughed in furrows the nest is placed on 

 the crown of a furrow ; in a grass meadow a patch 

 of horse-dung, which has lain some time and spread, 

 is chosen if possible, or, more rarely, a flattened 

 molehill. This is in order to make the best possible 

 use of the protective colouring of the eggs. In a 

 field which has a path leading into it by a stile or 

 gap the Plover will jirobably place its first nest in 

 no particular chosen spot ; but if this nest is taken, 

 the second, or at any rate the third nest will probably 

 be so placed as to command the gap by which the 

 nest-robber enters. The hen is thus able to see 

 him coming sooner, and to run a good way from 

 her nest before he sees her. 



". . . . A Plover has many enemies — Hawks, 

 Rooks, Magpies, foxes and men. . . . Undoubtedly, 

 however, the worst enemy of the Plover is man ; 

 for there is no doubt that their eggs, though perhaps 

 over-estimated, are very good to eat. . . . The fact 

 of the matter seems to be that every Plover is 

 determined to rear one brood in a year, neither more 

 nor less. If it succeeds in rearing its first brood, it 

 lays no more eggs ; whereas if its eggs are continu- 

 ally taken, it will continvie to lay even as late as 

 July. In this case no decrease in the number of 

 Plover might be caused by egg-collecting, but a 

 man who is in the habit of collecting large numbers 

 of Plovers' eggs yearly has assured me that a 

 Plover first lays the full number of four eggs ; if 

 these are taken, she lays three, then two, then one. 

 .... It is my belief that there is no fixed rule in 

 the matter, but that late nests generally contain 

 an incomplete clutch of either three, two, or one. 

 I also believe that Plover do decrease yearly, and 

 that this is partly owing to the extensive sale of 

 their eggs. ... I consider that it should be first 

 made a law through all England that no one should 

 take Plover's eggs in April, and it should be as un- 

 possible for a poulterer to expose these eggs in April 

 as it is for him to sell Pheasants in that month. 



" A Plover generally flies rovmd and round with 

 dismal cries when its nest is threatened. This is 

 not always the case, however, for the sitting-hen 

 will often fly sometime straight from its nest withoiit 

 running, and sHp away to a distant field without a 

 sound. As a rule she runs for some distance before 

 rising, and sometimes she will run from the nest 

 and then turn and fly back over it, perhaps to give 

 a false idea of the direction in which she has been 

 running. Two other habits are, perhaps, worth 

 brief notice ; firstly, sometimes the birds are ahnost 

 savage, sweeping past the intruder's head ; and I 

 have noticed this twice in cases where I could find 

 no nest in spite of a long search, and once in the 

 case of a nest with one fresh egg. Secondly, the 

 birds will sometimes settle on the groimd and run 

 to and fro, digging their beaks in the ground at 

 intervals, in order, perhaps, to appear unconcerned. 



" The other chief habit of the bird, which adds 

 to the difficulty of finding the eggs, is that of 

 making a large number of sham nests. These serve 

 several purposes. Firstly, they make it harder to 

 find the real nest, though I do not think the birds 

 make them with that intention. I have seen about 

 two dozen in a field frequented by only one pair of 

 birds. I have also seen a ploughed field with each 

 sham nest carefully marked by a little cairn of stones, 

 for the uninitiated often imagine that each of them 

 will at some time contain eggs. Secondly, they 

 serve as a look-out place, where the cock may keep 

 watch while the hen sits. Thirdly, they are made 

 by a display of the cock before the hen. One day 

 I watched a cock-bird making one ; he was bowing 

 and spinning rovmd on his breast, uttering all the 

 time a sort of creaking noise impossible to describe. 

 The hen was sitting on her nest about eight yards 

 away. Fourthly, they are sometimes used to 

 contain eggs later on. These sham nests are often 

 elaborate affairs, sometimes with a better lining 

 than the real one." 



A. E. Aldols {Silver Medal), Repton School. 



KESTREL AND SPARROW-HAWK. 



" The Kestrel usually chooses as a nesting-place a 

 hole in a tree, generally an old poplar. It also 

 chooses the old nest of a Wood-Pigeon, or, more 

 commonly, that of a Magpie. The bird is very 

 partial to its former nesting-place, and often lays 

 in it year after year. I know of one Hawk which 

 has laid in the same old place for the last five'years, 

 though the eggs have been taken at least once each 

 year. This year (1910) about the 20th of April, it 

 had five eggs : they were taken ; on the 5th of May 

 it had two eggs, these were also taken. Passing 

 there about a month later, I frightened the hen off, 

 and on climbing the tree I found five eggs in an 

 advanced state of incubation. It hatched off these, 

 for in a few days there were four young ones, little 

 white balls of fluff. ... In another field one day 



