The Zoologist— October, 1873. 3713 



and a bill only seven inches long; this was a female, but all the 

 others were males. The single bird had a full crest, but none 

 exhibited any yellow colour on the breast. 



Woodcock. — A small red woodcock was caught in a garden at 

 Yarmouth on the 14th, and proved a female on dissection. The 

 bird was very bare of feathers on the thighs and under parts, but 

 showed no other indications of having been nesting; internally it 

 seemed to be out of condition. 



Kingfisher s Nest. — On the 6lh of this month, when the young 

 birds were able to fly, I examined a nest of this species, perforated 

 into the face of a large chalk pit, about two feet six inches from 

 the top of the jamb, and partly concealed by the overhanging 

 grassy summit. This pit is in the parish of Keswick, near Norwich, 

 and some two hundred yards from any stream. It is in the 

 same neighbourhood as the nest I examined some ievf years back, 

 which was situated in the bank of a meadow-drain. The present 

 nest contained six full-fledged young, with the feathers on the top 

 of their heads much matted with the soil, which had dried on. 

 The chamber itself was domed, four inches deep by six inches 

 wide, and just the height of the nestlings, and from the mouth of 

 the hole to the back of the nest was nearly twelve inches. On the 

 floor were a very kvf fish-bones, but no other lining of any descrip- 

 tion, which confirms my impression that in new nests the eggs 

 are laid on the bare soil, and the fish-bones accumulate gradually 

 by the castings of the young. I have no doubt the previous nest 

 I examined had been used for several seasons, as perfect walls of 

 dried fishy matter had formed round it, and still more recent 

 deposits were heaving with maggots. In this case, except close to 

 the entrance, the nest was perfectly sweet and the fish-bones 

 white and dry. The entrance-hole measured three inches by two 

 inches in width. I have no question that this nest was made by 

 the birds themselves, and not adapted from a sand martin's or 

 other boring. Many small fish which had been dropped by the 

 birds were lying at the bottom of the pit, and it is believed that for 

 two or three seasons the same pair have nested lower down, at the 

 extremity of an old rabbit-burrow. 



July, 1873. 

 Swalloio's Nest. — Found a nest of this species, on the 16th, 

 attached to the side of a rafter in a boat-house, the birds gaining 



