NOTES. 61 



Murray A. Mathew, in his book on the " Birds of Pembroke- 

 shire," refers to this bird as having bred on Skomer Island, 

 but appears not to have seen it there himself. 



H. E. Forrest. 



SUPPOSED WILD SWANS ON COLL. 



The following appeared in one of the Scottish papers, and 

 was forwarded to me. 



" Some of your readers will be interested in learning that a 

 pair of Wild Swans are this year nesting on a small loch near 

 the Parish Church in the Island of Coll. . . . etc.— W. A. G." 



I visited the Island of Coll on June 14th and saw the birds 

 in question ; they are not " Wild Swans," but Mute Swans (C. 

 olor). Five eggs were laid ; two hatched, and the cygnets are 

 now with the parent birds. These particulars are sent in 

 case the mistake may be quoted at some future date. 



Heatley Noble. 



INLAND NESTING OF THE SHELD-DUCK. 



Mr. Heatley Noble in his interesting and useful paper 

 "On the Identification of Ducks' Eggs" {ante, p. 19), calls 

 attention to two facts regarding the nesting of the Sheld- 

 Duck {Tadorna cornuta) in Norfolk which are of especial 

 interest. First, as to the greatly increased number of Sheld- 

 Ducks nesting with us, and, secondly, as to this bird fre- 

 quenting localities distant from the sea- shore, where alone we 

 have been accustomed to look for it at that time. 



As to the increased numbers to be found nesting. We have 

 the evidence of Sir Thomas Browne that in his time (1668) 

 they were "not so rare as Turn[er]* makes them comon in 

 Norfolk so abounding in vast and spatious warrens," but, 

 like all other breeding birds, constant persecution reduced 

 its numbers in pre-protection times to a very sad remnant, 

 so that Stevenson writing about the year 1890 could only 

 record that, at that time, only a few pairs nested in the 

 sandhills on the north-west coast of the county. I can well 

 remember how in the summer of 1853 I was surprised to find 

 fragments of the egg-shells of this bird outside a burrow on 

 the Wells " meals" from which a brood had evidently been 

 hatched. Since protection has been extended to them their 

 numbers (as well as those of other species of Ducks) nesting 

 in Norfolk have increased amazingly and they are to be 

 found nesting in most suitable locahties on the north and 

 west coasts. 



* See " Turner on Birds," Evans' Edit., p. 25. 



