376 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vi. 



This is not an unusual occurrence with Moorhens. I then 

 visited a pond where a pair of birds always nest early (as 

 reported in British Birds, antea, p. 23), and found a nest 

 containing eight eggs on Avhich the bird had been sitting 

 three or four days. This means that laying could not have 

 commenced later than March 17th. In 1911, in Shropshire, 

 I saw young Moorhens, a few days old, on April 27th. In 

 1912 I found young ones, also a few days old, on April 23rd. 

 These instances with those previously recorded in British 

 Birds show that it is not very unusual for the IMoorhen to 

 begin lajdng in March. J. H. Owen. 



LETTER. 



DISEASED FEET OF WOODCOCK. 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — I need hardly say how interested I was to read the report 

 on the feet of a Woodcock which I sent you in December, 1912, and 

 in which Dr. N. F. Ticehm-st states : " Had the subject been human 

 and not avian, I should not have hesitated to have ascribed the con- 

 ditions as due to tuberculosis." On July 23rd, 1905, I picked up a 

 Lapwing in a moribund, state, which I forwarded after death to Dr. C. 

 G. Seligmann. He found that it was " the subject of advanced 

 tuberculosis," and a short description of it together with a plate (fig. 3) 

 duly appeared in The Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine for 

 December, 1907. May I add how glad I am to feel that I was in some 

 way instrumental in bringing about your decision (expressed in 

 Vol. VI., p. 282) as to undertaking " Post-mortem examination of 

 Birds " on behalf of contributors to your Magazine. 



Hugh S. Gladstone. 



