Bird Notes. 109 



lirJr ^otes* 



Wild duck's nest in tree, at Potterne. The following 



account of the discovery of a wild duck's nest will perhaps interest such 

 readers of our Magazine as are interested in natural history. On the 

 26th of April, 1902, 1 was watching a pair of crows which had made four 

 nests in different trees in one large field, and I wished to find out which 

 one they had finally selected. The first nest which they had built was in 

 a fork near the top of a very high elm — one of a rank of three trees in 

 the middle of the field. I happened to turn my head towards this nest, 

 when to my surprise I saw a bird standing on the edge — or on the fork in 

 which the nest was built — but before I could get my glasses to bear on it, 

 the bird flew off on the far side of the tree, and I saw that it was a duck. 



To make quite certain, on the 30th I took two men with me and 

 borrowed a long ladder from the nearest farm, by the help of which one 

 of the men was able to climb the tree ; when he was within some 10ft. 

 of the nest the duck flew off. There were six eggs in the nest. 



Early in June I found egg-shells under the tree, and young birds 

 were seen in the neighbourhood. This nest was quite 60ft. from the 

 ground. 



There are several records of ducks' nests in trees (of course in pollard 

 willows they are by no means uncommon), and Selby records a nest 

 of a wild duck in the nest of a crow 30ft. from the ground. 



I wish very much that I could have seen how the mother conveyed 

 her little ones safely to the ground from such a height. 



A. B. FiSHEK. 



White-Tailed Eagle, a note in WUts County Mirror, March 3rd, 

 1905, records the fact that a fine specimen of this noble bird, which had 

 been for some time in the neighbourhood, was shot in Groveley Wood, 

 and is now in the possession of Lord Pembroke, at "Wilton. It is added 

 that its depredations amongst the lambs made its destruction necessary. 

 How far this was really the case does not appear, though it is said vaguely 

 to have " had one or two lambs over Imber way." In any case, when 

 it suddenly appeared over the heads of a rabbit-shooting party at Groveley 

 four barrels were fired at it, and it came down crippled, to be finished off 

 by the keepers, a result profoundly to be regretted by all true naturalists. 

 It was at first stated to be a Golden Eagle, but on examination turned 

 out to be, as is usually the case in the South of England, a White-Tailed 

 or Sea Eagle. 



