68 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. x. 



antea, p. 44) has been fulfilled, and that the bird has been 

 proved to have nested in Wiltshire. The facts are as follows. 

 On Sunday, July 2nd, 1916, while walking on Salisbury Plain, 

 about a mile from Tidworth, I heard a pair of Curlew calling, 

 and on approaching them I was convinced from their 

 behaviour that they had yoimg, but after watching for over 

 an hour I was obliged to leave unsatisfied. On July 4th, 

 Captain Ashley, R.A.M.C. and I rode to the spot, and though 

 no Curlew were to be seen there, we eventually located one 

 bird about a quarter of a mile away. Captain Ashley hid 

 himself, while I led the two horses away, but though he 

 watched for some time he failed to find any young. We were 

 on the point of giving up the search when my dog found and 

 killed a yoimg Curlew of about a week old, thus effectually 

 proving that the bird does, at least occasionally, nest in 

 Wiltshire. 



In the note referred to above I stated that I knew of no 

 part of the county which was really suited to the requirements 

 of the bird, and though I have since found it nesting (and 

 within a mile of where I was writing), I can only say that 

 the locality was far from being of the type which previous 

 experience has taught me to associate with the Common 

 Curlew, being merely typical down land. It is rather a 

 curious coincidence that I should find this bird the day after 

 I had published my disbelief in the nesting of the Curlew in 

 Wiltshire. 



II. The Black Grouse. 



The references to Wiltshire (quoted by the Rev. F. C. R. 

 Jourdain) from Mr. Harting's Handbook of British Birds, 

 2nd ed., p. 133, are taken from Smith's Birds of Wiltshire 

 and are those to which I alluded, in general terms, in my 

 note {vide antea, p. 45). G. Bathurst Hony. 



LARGE BROOD OF MOORHEN. 



On my pond at Burnage, Didsbury, on July 2nd, 1916, a pair 

 of Moorhens {Gallinula ch. chloropus) hatched out a brood of 

 fourteen young ; as there is only one pair of birds on the 

 pond, it precludes the possibility of these being the product 

 of two hens. Herbert Massey 



[Probably this is about the largest clutch on record, as 

 the cases in which nineteen, twenty, twenty-one and even 

 twenty-six eggs have been found in one nest are almost 

 certainly the produce of two or more fernales, — Eds. J 



