Notes on the Birds which Inhabit Scotton Common. lit 
no evidence that either of these species remains to nest. I have 
seen a pair of the former as late in the Spring as April 28th, and 
once I saw a drake, perhaps a wounded bird, on July 24th. ‘This 
species is, I think, chiefly a passing visitor to the Common in early 
Spring, and the same may perhaps be said of the Pochard, which 
I have only noticed on the ponds in the month of March. 
A pair of Little Grebes nest regularly on a large shallow 
pond known as “ The Greenhole,” in company with three or four 
pairs of Coots 3 and numbers of Moorhens skulk about in 
the swampy spots, their nests and eggs often catching the eye of 
the visitor, even in the midst of a colony of gulls. 
There are yet several interesting species nesting on the 
Common not yet mentioned in this paper. Lapwing’s inhabit 
the place in numbers, and a keeper takes their eggs systematically, 
beginning about the end of March and gathering about 250 in 
the season. At the end of July, young and old birds are seen 
~ about the Common in large flocks. 
Quantities of Snipe also nest among the heather, but more 
particularly among the coarse grass-lands towards the river ‘I rent, 
near apond known as the “Ferry Flash.” In Spring the sharp 
cries and the peculiar “‘ drumming” noise produced by this species 
_ may be heard on all sides. Much controversy has arisen over the 
question as to how this sound is produced, and though few 
Naturalists now hold to the exploded theory that the sound is 
_ produced from the bird’s throat, yet the following extract from my 
~ note-books may prove of interest to some. “ Scotton Common 
April 28th, 1904. Snipe very excited, and were continually circling 
‘about over the marsh, uttering sharp cries of ‘“chip-chip” or 
“drumming.” I watched the latter process carefully through my 
‘prism glasses. Just before the noise is heard the bird may be 
seen to spread out its tail like a fan, the outer feathers on each side 
standing well apart from the rest. The bird then takes a head- 
long dive towards the ground, and the wings, and I think the tail 
feathers also, vibrate rapidly while the sound is produced. The 
wings do not touch the tail feathers during the process, I am 
“practically sure of this.” The noise which is peculiarly like the 
F bleat of a goat is certainly produced by the action of the bird’s 
