95 



far north, but breed earlier and return earlier than those which 

 pass later in the spring, and which in consequence return later 

 in autumn. Different sorts of birds vary in the length of time 

 required for the purpose of hatching and rearing their young 

 that is, before the young are capable of flying well and taking 

 care of themselves. Wading birds as the Curlew, Golden Plo- 

 ver, Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Dunlin, and Redshank require, 

 I think, about eight weeks from the time the eggs are laid till 

 the young can fly well, and immediately after this they are ca- 

 pable of flying any distance. At this season the young of these 

 species can fly better than the parent birds, which have com- 

 menced to moult their quills. It seems clear that these birds 

 only produce one lot of eggs in the season, unless the first are 

 destroyed. C. M. A. (Newcastle-upon-Tyne.) 



THE LITTLE BITTERK 

 (Reprinted from" The Field" Newspaper, October 13th, 1866.) 



In THE FIELD of ^August 25th Dr. Bree notices the occurrence of 

 a Little Bittern, killed near Colchester, on the 13th of the month. 

 Prior to its publication I also had forwarded to the editor a notice 

 of a Little Bittern killed in Northumberland on the 31st of May, 

 with some observations on the habits of the bird, and they ap- 

 peared in THE FIELD of September 1st. On September 8th Mr. 

 Marshall suggests, from Dr. Bree's notice, that the bird breeds 

 in England. Dr. Bree says in his bird, a female, there were 

 two small eggs for next season in the ovarium. Is that what 

 Mr. Marshall draws his inference from, and is there not some 

 mistake? I have sometimes examined birds, and in females, 

 after the breeding season, have found a considerable cluster of 

 minute eggs all the same size, and often so small as to render 

 the determination of the sex extremely difficult, if not impos- 

 sible. At any rate, if this bird would have bred in England 

 had it not been killed, it would have had to spend the winter 

 in some distant country, probably Africa, as it could not outlive 



