218 BIRDS OF THE ESTUARY. 



the young birds had flown I removed the nest, 

 and finding the birds built again the second 

 year I again removed it. In the third year, 

 for some reason, the birds deserted nest and 

 egg; and never came back to the same tree. 



I had an unusual experience (April iQth, 

 1911) with a Golden Crested wren. Seeing a 

 nest which I could not reach I got a boy to 

 climb up. He brought me down one egg 

 although he had broken another in the nest 

 which he said contained a lot. I naturally 

 concluded that the birds would desert, so a week 

 afterwards thought I would secure the nest for 

 the Bristol Museum, but strange to say found 

 eight eggs in perfect condition, the old birds 

 evidently having removed the broken egg. Near 

 by I have found both Chiffchaff and Willow 

 Wren's nests. 



A pair of Shelducks usually build near the 

 estuary although I have never located the nest. 

 Two years following I found a Kestrel's nest 

 in the cliff by the river side, also several King 

 fishers' and dippers'. 



Among the birds I have seen are Land rail 

 and water rail, once a pair of Eider ducks, 

 Great Northern Diver, Oyster catcher, Red- 

 shank, Dunlin, Tern, Puffin and Curlew. Of 

 the latter, twice a pair built at the bottom of 

 the railway bank near the marsh, but I only 

 discovered them as the young ones were clearing 

 off. On the common one of my little ones 

 called out, and I found a Nightjar showing 

 fight : on my coming up it flew off leaving a 



