VOL. XV. ] LETTERS. 23 



bed is a good mile long, and seventy yards wide, so that birds 

 are not in any way cramped for space to nest in, which fact 

 is a reason for doubting whether this large clutch is the 

 product of two hens sharing one nest. Of course, only one 

 bird was sitting, which proves nothing. Unfortunately, lack 

 of time prevented me from watching this nest for (possibly) 

 many hours, to see whether two hens were sharing the 

 incubation between them. Cecil Smeed. 



[In the case of large clutches of this species it is, as a rule, 

 impossible to assert with certainty that they are all laid by 

 one female, but Mr. H. Massey {British Birds, X., p. 68) has 

 proved that 14 eggs in a nest at Didsbury were a clutch. 

 Nests with 19 to 26 eggs are almost certainly the product of 

 two or more females. — F. C. R. Jourdain.] 



LETTERS. 



THE RELATION OF SONG TO NESTING OF BIRDS. 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — Several comments have appeared on a study which I made 

 and am continuing, on this subject, and on which I shall perhaps be 

 allowed to add something further in the Irish Naturalist. 



One naturally welcomes all additional information, but may I 

 enter a caveat against opinions which are not based on the almost 

 daily study of individual birds throughout the period from earliest 

 song. Moreover, it is not a question of song or no song, but of the 

 comparative amount of song at different times. A bird may sing 

 about ten minutes in a day at one period and ten hours a day in another. 

 For anyone to say that the Whitethroats sing to the same extent 

 after completion of the nest as before, or as unmated birds, is to me 

 astonishing. For another to say that all the Chaffinches " seem to 

 sing all day and every day " only shows, I think, how easily we can 

 form wrong opinions. 



Again, there is no doubt whatever that in this part of the country 

 there are numbers of males of certain species which remain long 

 unmated, sometimes even for months, and whose song is incessant 

 and out of all comparison in strength, continuity and period with 

 the breeding ones. Great care has to be taken not to confuse the 

 mated male with an adjacent one which may be unmated or at a 

 different connubial stage. The general position I have reached is 

 that with a number of species there is either no song or practically 

 no song from completion of the nest to hatching out. That during 

 the rearing of the young the song varies from nothing or practically 

 nothing to something considerable. I cannot go into further details 

 in a letter. J. P. Burkitt. 



Enniskillen, Ireland. 



LONG-TAILED TITS METHOD OF BUILDING. 



To the Editors of British Birds. 

 Sirs, — I have only just mustered up sufficient courage to relate 

 the following tale, after a lapse of some twenty odd years. It refers 



