VOL. X.] NOTES. 119 



or in expiration or in both. Last summer Mr. W. Farren 

 and I watched a male reeling at very close quarters on 

 Wicken Fen and timed him with a watch. Regularly at 

 every fifteen seconds there was a slight but appreciable 

 break in the song, but it was so small as to be scarcely notice- 

 able at a distance. 



Mr. W. H. Hudson writes of the song as lasting about 

 forty seconds, but after the observation above I do not think 

 it lasts more than a third of this time. Later on I was able 

 to time a Nightjar when churring at close quarters, and can 

 state positively that in almost every case there was a pause 

 at the end of five seconds and in no case did the song last 

 longer than nine seconds. The break was so extremely short 

 that it can hardly have served either for complete inspiration 

 or complete expiration, and yet as each bout of song with 

 both birds lasted for sometimes as long as fifty or sixty 

 seconds, it would be rather a remarkable respiratory feat 

 if, to speak in popular terms, " the breath was held " all that 

 time. I have timed the dive of such species as the Cormorant, 

 Coot and Little Grebe, and the normal period of submersion 

 when feeding is not longer than twenty to thirty seconds. I 

 should like to know whether the thoracic and abdominal 

 air-sacs are brought into play, and if so, does the very slight 

 break mentioned above denote expiration or inspiration of 

 a part of the tidal air of the lungs ; for it is so short that I 

 cannot think that it represents inspiration or expiration of 

 all, even of the tidal air. Maud D. Haviland. 



BLACKBIRDS BREEDING THREE AND FOUR TIMES 

 IN THE SAME NEST. 



With reference to the statement on page 95 that the Black- 

 bird has been known to use the same nest for three broods, 

 it may be of interest to record that, in my garden near 

 Lancaster this year, a pair of Blackbirds have reared two broods 

 in the same nest in which two broods were reared last year. 

 Whether the nest was used by the same pair of birds, I cannot 

 say, but no additions or repairs were made to it this year. 



H. W. Robinson 



• 



In 1914 a pair of Blackbirds reared three broods in one 

 nest at Letch worth. Moreover, the male Blackbird busily 

 occupied himself feeding, as well as his own family, some 

 young Robins in a nest a few feet away from his own nest 

 and within seeing distance of the sitting female Blackbird. 



W. Percival Westell. 



