PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 97 



to the Mediterranean region and North Africa as far as the Sahara, and apparently 

 Nubia and Abyssinia, 1 while in Asia it visits Arabia, Persia, Baluchistan and 

 Northern India. [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A resident, and apparently also a bird-of-passage on its 

 way to and from the Continent. The species' British breeding-area has been 

 indicated in the preceding paragraph, but in autumn and winter the birds are more 

 widely diffused, and it is at these seasons for the most part that they are seen in the 

 eastern and southern districts of England. In autumn young birds are compara- 

 tively numerous as migrants, chiefly on the east of Great Britain ; on the return 

 passage they are rarely met with. A few, chiefly adults it seems, pass the winter 

 in the British Isles. (Cf. Saunders, III. Man. B. B., second edition, 1899, p. 317 ; 

 Witherby and Ticehurst, British Birds, vol. i. p. 317 ; Ussher and Warren, B. of 

 Ireland, 1900, p. 121 ; Nelson, B. of Yorlcs., 1907, p. 318, etc.). [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest is always on the ground, sometimes in 

 rough heather on moorlands and occasionally among rank vegetation in marsh 

 lands, while in the central European plain it frequently builds among the growing 

 corn. The same hillside may be resorted to year after year unless, as is frequently 

 the case, the birds are killed. The amount of material used varies, sometimes 

 only a few heather twigs, bents and grasses being used, while at other times it is 

 rather bulky, and on the Continent potato stalks, moss, hair, feathers and other 

 materials have been found in the nest. Information as to the share of the sexes 

 in building is not available. The eggs are usually from four to six in number, 

 but eight have been found in one nest (cf. Vert. Fauna of N.-W. Highlands and 

 Skye, p. 135). They are, as a rule, pale bluish white, without gloss, but occasionally 

 may be met with spotted more or less distinctly with rusty red or red-brown. 

 Average size of 100 eggs T78 x 1-40 in. [45*3 x 35'7 mm.]. Incubation is performed 

 by the female alone, and is said to last for three weeks, but more exact information 

 on this point is desirable. In Scotland the first eggs are deposited at the end of 

 April, and full clutches may be found from the first week of May onward, some- 

 times not till the second or third week of that month. As the birds will lay again 

 after the first clutch has been taken, fresh eggs may be found in June, but only 

 a single brood is reared in the season. [F. c. B. J.] 



5. Food. Of the adults, water and fen birds, and small mammals ; frogs, 

 fish, insects, and eggs of the birds on which they prey during the rest of the year. 

 The young are fed largely on nestling birds (see p. 103). [w. P. P.] 



1 Mr. A. Chapman states that it visits British East Africa in winter (Athi plains). 

 VOL. IV. N 



