The Zoologist— September, 1867. 909 



of moss ; but this nest, though resting on nothing but the brier, and 

 at some elevation, is externally formed of leaves, and nothing else. 

 The opening is of fine green moss closely packed, and of a smooth 

 surface, but there are a few fine grass-straws intermixed, encircling the 

 entrance, which is neatly rounded off. There is no lining of feathers, 

 though the nest has a finished look, and is perfectly even within. 



Common Buzzard. — Although 1 have lately heard of a falcon having 

 been seen at Steephill, I believe it to be the common buzzard, as it was 

 observed wheeling about at a great height; besides, on the 23rd, I 

 obtained a momentary view of a large dark bird, which I took to be 

 the female of the latter species, soaring over the Downs. 



Cuckoo. — 25. In the stomach of a cuckoo, brought to me for 

 identification, nothing but the remains of small black beetles were 

 found. 



Quail. — Though I have occasionally heard of the occurrence of the 

 quail in the island, I never before knew of its nesting here, but I am 

 now told by a farmer well known to me, and whose farm at Niton 

 I shot over last season, that his men, in mowing grass on the hill-side 

 on the 15th, laid bare a quail's nest with numerous eggs. Seeing there 

 would be no chance of the old birds returning to the nest, he took the 

 eggs home and placed them under a hen, but without much expecta- 

 tion of their being hatched. I heard, many years since, of a bevy of 

 quails being met with near Shanklin. The quail seems partial to 

 islands, and is abundant in the Isle of Man, for during my short stay 

 there I bagged sixteen brace and a half: the landrail, too, was far 

 more numerous than in any other part of England that I know of. 

 Bewick's account of the number of eggs laid by the quail is so widely 

 different from that of other authors that I am induced to make a few 

 remarks on it. One would imagine the quail to be an uncommon or 

 rare species, for he says " it lays but six or seven eggs, whereas in 

 France they are said to lay as many as twenty." Strange that an 

 observer and writer like Bewick should have so greatly erred. So we 

 are to believe that the quail on one side of the channel lays eighteen 

 or twenty eggs, and on the other but six or seven ? If proof were 

 needed of its laying with us double the number of eggs stated by 

 Bewick, I have only to observe that having gone lately to Niton, to 

 make further inquiry, I have ascertained that the eggs taken from the 

 nest on the 15th of June were fourteen in number. But that the quail 

 occasionally lays some eighteen or twenty eggs I have had pretty good 

 proof; for when residing at Pau, Basses Pyrenees, a peasant showed 



