VOL. XI.] NOTES. 91 
nests are often built in bushes and low shrubs, and even 
ivy, but usually within a couple of feet or so from the ground. 
I have an indistinct recollection of the point being discussed 
in the Field long ago and in which discussion my late brother 
Alfred took part. Some considerable altitudes were recorded, 
but none, if I remember aright, so high as 13 ft. This must 
have been a considerable time ago, since my brother died 
in 1896. ABEL CHAPMAN, 
A parr of Willow-Warblers built a nest last year, 1916, in 
some ivy growing against a wall inmy garden in Westmorland. 
The nest was about 2 ft. from the ground. This year 
a nest was built among ivy on the top of the wall, which is 
about 5 ft. 6 in. high. In both cases the young were 
successfully reared. K. U. Savace. 
[It is scarcely credible that Howard Saunders can have 
overlooked the numerous instances of nests of the Willow- 
Warbler placed at heights exceeding four feet, and possibly 
the statement was due to some misapprehension or lapse of 
memory. A nest built in 1904 in trellis on the wall of my 
house at Clifton was nearly five feet from the ground, and 
another seen by me at Burton-on-Trent in Mr. H. G. 
Tomlinson’s garden was also five feet from the ground. 
Similar instances have frequently been recorded, and in some 
cases this height has been greatly exceeded. Mr. H. Noble 
states (Zool. 1899, p. 556) that the highest nest seen by him 
was quite twelve feet from the ground in ivy on a house. 
Mr. J. P. Thomasson found this species breeding on the top 
of an old nest in a dead fir, about fifteen feet from the ground 
(Zool., 1868, p. 1294 and Ornithologist, p. 187), and Baron 
A. von Hugel (Zool., 1872, p. 3228) describes a nest seen by 
him on a branch of a fir tree fully sixteen feet above the ground. 
It will be noticed that at least two of these records were 
published long prior to the issue of the second edition of 
the Manual. 
The late Lieut. E. B. Dunlop records in his MSS. notes two 
nests built in ivy against walls at 7 and 8 ft. from the ground 
in the Lake district. 
With regard to the question of the share of the sexes in 
incubation and rearing the young, there is no doubt that the 
greater share of incubation at any rate is performed by the 
hen. It is perhaps worth noting that Naumann states that 
the cock relieves her during part of the afternoon. Mr. H. E. 
Howard (Brit. Warblers, ‘“‘ Willow Warbler,” p. 25) states that 
during incubation *‘the male has nothing to do except to 
find food for himself.’ He also states that incubation lasts 
