OTES 



REED-BUNTINGS FLOCKING IN SPRING. 



With reference to the note on the spring flocking of Reed- 

 Buntings {Emberiza s. sclioeniclus) {antea, p. 269) I came 

 across a flock of seven or eight to-day, April 4th, near Bexhill, 

 Sussex. There were two females in the party and all were 

 in very l:»right plumage. Charles G. Young. 



SOME BREEDING-HABITS OF THE COMMON WREN. 



With reference to Mr. Leslie Smith's note {antea, p. 209), on 

 the postponed laying of the Common Wren {Troglodytes t. 

 troglodytes), I have been rather surprised that it has not called 

 forth the record of similar experiences. As regards eccen- 

 tricities none of our common species is worthier of close 

 observation than the WYen. For many years past I have 

 remarked that instances of postponed laying are not at all 

 unusual. I have just looked up my notes of two such 

 occurrences ; in both I can vouch for the fact that the nest 

 was not an old one of the previous year (for they were built 

 on my own premises where every yard is subjected to constant 

 scrutiny), but one nest was complete but for the feathered 

 lining more than seven weeks before eggs were laid, and the 

 other at least five weeks. Always, however, in my experience, 

 the addition of the feathered lining is immediately followed 

 by the laying of the eggs. Incubation frequently lasts a full 

 sixteen clays, and the fledging occupies from fourteen to 

 seventeen days or longer, the young birds being ready to 

 leave the nest earlier on disturbance. At least twice I have 

 known a nest, which has been robbed after incubation has 

 begun, to be used after an interval for a second attempt. In 

 fact the liability of Wrens to desert capriciously has been 

 greatly exaggerated. No bird is more preoccupied while 

 building and more indifferent to observation ; I have set 

 up a camera in full view within a few feet without interrupting 

 operations. But as the nest approaches completion it is, [ 

 think, rather a dift'erent matter, a«[id far the greatest number 

 of " desertions " take place at this stage ; though as I have 

 indicated some are not permanently deserted, while many are 

 from the first experimental. "U'hen once the first (tg^ has been 

 laid and still more as incubation advances, no ordinary 

 interference is likely to cause desertion. 



