NOTES. 221 



Swallow {Hirundo rustica). — ^A few pairs round Binscarth 

 had nests in the farm- buildings, and there were a few pairs 

 round the farm-buildings at Balfour. 



Shoveler {Spatula clypeata). — A few pairs nest in Orkney. 

 We put rings on the young on June 6th. 



Pintail [Daflla acuta). — Increasing in numbers ; most 

 probably has nested in Orkney for the last two or three years, 

 if not longer, but this year we found several nests with eggs 

 and also cauglit some ten or twelve young on June 4th, and 

 put rings on their legs. We saw on one occasion nine Pintail 

 drakes together (June 10th). 



Tufted Duck {Fuligula cristata). — We saw several pairs 

 on May 25th, and found two nests with eggs on June 14th. 

 The bird is increasing as a breeding- species. 



Black-tailed God wit {Limosa belgica). — We saw a single 

 bird, which was very tame, on June 7th. James R. Hale 



T. P. Aldworth. 



Notes on British Birds in Confinement. — -Mr. J. L. 

 Bonhote, the newly-appointed editor of the Avicultural 

 Magazine, contributes to that journal (Third Series, Vol. I., 

 pp. 259-267 and pp. 299-310) some interesting notes from 

 observations made by himself in his own aviaries. We may 

 quote the following, referring to British species : — Song- 

 Thrush. — It is noted that both the continental and British 

 races of this bird have been kept, and that they retain their 

 distinctive shades of colour. Tree-Sparrow. — One is seven 

 years eleven months old, and is still living ; the longest- 

 lived of the author's Passerine birds of which he has note. 

 Snow-Bunting. — The author states that this species does not 

 assume adult plumage until the second year. Starling. — 

 Examples with a dull white ring round the iris are 

 females. Scops Owl. — ^Incubation-period twenty-five daj^s. 

 Common Buzzard. — Two birds kept over ten years and over 

 four years resjDectively were of the dark phase, and the plumage 

 did not alter in the least with age. Mallard. — Ducks choose 

 their own drakes, and in most cases birds once paired will, 

 if opportunity occurs, mate again every year, although they 

 may have been separated during the winter. The drakes 

 remain with the ducks until the young are hatched, after which 

 they retire to moult. The assumption of the eclipse-plumage 

 of the drakes is to a large extent dependent on the hatchmg 

 of the young, and generally first shows itself about five weeks 

 after the duck commences to incubate. Turtle-Dove. — Incuba- 

 tion-period thirteen to fourteen days. Water-Bail. — Moults 

 its flight-feathers simultaneously, like the rest of the Rails. 



