PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 117 



Adriatic, reaching Southern Italy and Tunis (cf. Thienemann, Journal fur Orni- 

 thologie, 1909, pp. 449-458, and plate viii.). Whether we accept this interpretation 

 or not, it is of interest to note that the first of these supposed routes is represented 

 in the British Isles by records from Great Yarmouth and the Isle of Wight respec- 

 tively. At all times very gregarious, and probably mainly a diurnal traveller, 

 although sometimes heard passing overhead at night. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. As a rule the nest is placed on tussocks in marshy 

 ground, but sometimes it is built on floating vegetation in water, and also at times 

 on dry land in the neighbourhood of marshes. Large colonies are also found nest- 

 ing on sandhills near the sea. Sometimes the nests are placed so close together 

 that it is difficult to walk between them without treading on the eggs. At Twig- 

 moor a few pairs build in trees, several feet from the ground (Seebohm, History of 

 British Birds, iii. p. 311 ; 0. Grabham, Field, June?, 1902; R. Fortune, Naturalist, 

 1910, p. 95, etc.). The nest is a tolerably substantial one, built of dead sedges, 

 reeds, grass, or other vegetable matter, which, according to Naumann, is contributed 

 by both birds, but see p. 145. (PL XLIV.) The eggs are generally three in number, 

 but four are occasionally found in one nest, and in some cases are almost certainly 

 the produce of one hen. In large colonies extraordinary variation is found. Some 

 thin-shelled eggs are bluish white in ground-colour, and are without markings or have 

 all the colour concentrated into one huge blotch or zone of deep brown at the big 

 end, but most eggs vary from stone colour to olive-brown in ground, and are blotched 

 and spotted with purple-grey shell-markings and deep brown or blackish. In some 

 cases the ground-colour ranges to bright blue, which, however, soon fades, and other 

 eggs have a greenish ground. A rare type is distinctly erythristic, and has a warm 

 reddish ground with brownish red markings. Zones, sometimes very distinctly 

 marked, of light blue occasionally appear on these eggs (cf. British Birds, iv. pp. 317 

 and 220). (PL I.) Average size of 76 eggs, 2-2x1-46 in. [52-8x37-2 mm.]. 

 The eggs are laid at intervals of a day, and are incubated for 20 days (H. S. Glad- 

 stone), 17-18 days (P. H. Bahr, Home Life of Marsh Birds, p. 54), or 22-24 days 

 from laying of last (?) egg (W. Evans). Both sexes take part in incubation. The 

 breeding season begins about .the middle of April in the south of England, and 

 about a week later in the north, while in Scotland the average time is towards 

 the end of April. Normally only one brood is reared in the season, but when 

 robbed the hen will lay again several times. [F. o. R. J.] 



5. Food. In a report made in 1907 by Mr. D. L. Thorpe and Mr. Hope 

 to the County Council of Cumberland, it was shown, as a result of 100 post-mortem 



