VOL. VII.] NOTES. 87 



COMMON TERNS BREEDING IN ESSEX. 



A SMALL colony of Common Terns {Sterna hirundo) has, this 

 year, settled on some saltings in north-east Essex. On 

 June 5th, 1913, in company with Mr. Jones and his son, 

 the owners of the shooting rights over the land, I inspected 

 the colony. We found sixteen nests, and reckoned that 

 about twenty pairs were nesting in the area, with about 

 the same number of Black-headed Gulls. The nests were 

 scattered over a considerable area, but we found at one 

 place three Terns' nests and a Redshank's within a radius of 

 five yards. At the date of our \isit we found only one chick 

 hatched. 



IMr. Jones has done his utmost to preserve the birds from 

 molestation. 



Mr. Miller Christy informs me that he has no record of 

 Common Terns breeding in the county for many years. 



Walter B, Nichols. 



MOORHEN'S DOUBLE NEST BUILT INTO ONE. 



Although there are a good many records of Moorhens 

 {Gallinula ch. chloropus) building up their nests after the 

 eggs have been laid, the following rather curious circumstance 

 is, we think, worth relating. On May 4th, 1913, we found 

 at the Mull of Galloway a Moorhen's nest of normal shape 

 and size, containing six eggs, and touching it (but not actually 

 joined to it) another nest with one egg. This second nest 

 appeared to be unfinished, and was only some two or three 

 inches high. The nests were placed on the muddy bank 

 of a small burn, under some trees. We cUd not visit the 

 nests again until May 7th, and meanwhile, on May 6th, 

 there had been much rain and the burn was overflowing 

 its banks at a good many points. On May 7th we found 

 that the small unfinished nest had been built up on to the 

 normal nest. The new nest-cup thus made only contained 

 four eggs, but on investigation we found that two eggs were 

 lying in the mud near the nest, and two others were buried 

 in the middle of the nest itself, just where its original " cup " 

 was situated. On May 4th there were seven eggs altogether 

 (six in the normal and one in the unfinished nest), so that 

 the bird had been able by some means to bring three of 

 these on to the new " storey," though four had been lost 

 in the process. The nest was certainly in danger of being 

 flooded, but it was not actually touched by the water. 



J. G. Gordon. 



H. F. WiTHERBY. 



