VOL. IX.] NOTES. 125 



" generally builds in a fir-tree — a spruce fir for choice."' In 

 the district with which I am best acquainted, viz., south, 

 west and central Scotland, all the nests I have examined 

 ^\•ere in pine trees, in deserted nests of Magpies or Carrion- 

 Crows. Wide, rolling country with strips of pines, where 

 one might expect to find a Kestrel, is the typical home of 

 this species. The nest usually contains eggs by the third 

 \\eek in March, and is generally scantily lined with dead 

 ]tine needles. On two occasions I have found quantities of 

 oreen pine needles, evidently freshly plucked, and dead 

 fronds of '' hard " fern. As incubation advances, a few 

 feathers and some dirty-looking bluish-grey down are 

 invariably to be met with. According to my notes, incubation 

 lasts from twenty-five to twenty-seven days, and the young 

 tly twenty-four days after hatching. The " cheeping ' 

 notes of the young Long-eared Owls differ from those of 

 the Tawny Owl progeny, so that the experienced bird's- 

 nester can distinguish the species after merely tapping the 

 tree. The young of each species of Tit also have quite 

 distinguishable '' cheerings." a very useful help to identi- 

 fication in the case of a nest when the occupants are out 

 of sight. 



The Long-eared Owl is generally much attached to a wood, 

 and returns yearly to nest, but seldom utilizes the same 

 nest twice successively, though it may do so after some 

 years. On April 8th, 1914, I put an Owl ofi^ a nest in a 

 little pine wood which contained four highly-incubated eggs. 

 On April 8th, 1915, I revisited the wood and found the Ow\ 

 brooding on five eggs, again much incidjated, in a nest on 

 the tree next to that previously occupied. Occasionally, 

 however, favourite woods are deserted for no apparent 

 reason, and two or three years later the Owls return again 

 to their old haunts. On one occasion I found a nest which 

 was only a niin of bleached sticks encircling a fork, the 

 eggs being laid on the bare wood of the tree. James Caikns. 



BLACK-NECKED GREBE BREEDING IN IRELAND. 



Ox two occasions correspondents have told me that they 

 have seen Grebes larger than the Dabchick, and smaller than 

 the Great Crested Grebe, on some of the Irish lakes during 

 the summer months, viz. Lough Erne and Killarney. As people 

 are so easily mistaken, I made no further enquiry ; however, 

 on August 25th, 1915, I received from one of the A^estern lakes 

 a young Black-necked Grebe {Colymbus n.nigricolUs). shot the 

 previous day. with the wings so little developed that the 



