5062 THe ZooLoGisT—SEPTEMBER, 1876. 
pleased to hear one singing from some reeds in a dry ditch 
separating two fields in these marshes. A few minutes of careful 
crawling through the long grass of a meadow brought me close to 
the spot and within a few feet of the songster. I watched it for 
some time, and almost came to the conclusion—judging from the 
conspicuous light streak over the eye and light-coloured legs—that 
I had stumbled upon an example of the rare marsh warbler (the 
A. palustris of Bechstein) ; the note, however, was that of the reed 
warbler, so there was no use entertaining the idea. The next day, 
hearing the bird near the same spot, I entered the reeds, and had 
scarcely done so before I came upon the nest, containing four 
eggs, suspended in the usual manner to the reeds. This ditch was 
four feet wide at the bottom, and filled with reeds, six to seven 
feet in height. The nest was placed eighteen inches from the 
bottom, near its centre, and had six stems of the reed woven into 
and supporting the sides; it was a much slighter and more loosely- 
woven structure than is usually the case, and the walls so thin as 
to be easily seen through, shallower, too, than the average nest of 
this species. The materials were coarse stems of a grass (without 
the florets, so it was difficult to say what grass it was), mixed with 
some wool and moss, the inside lined with the same coarse 
materials. On again inspecting the nest, on the 13th of July, 
I found the young just hatched; by the end of the month they 
had left the nest, and I saw the old bird feeding them with 
insects. 
Stock Dove.—The stock dove is becoming quite a common 
species with us: this year a pair have built, for the first time, 
amongst the ivy on the chancel of the church, and I have also 
met with several pairs nesting amongst the thick upper branches 
of the Scotch fir. 
JOHN CORDEAUX. 
Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, 
August 9, 1876. 
Errata.— Zoologist,’ July, 1876, p. 4983, line 10, for Loch Hess read Loch Ness; 
same page, line 15, for Wragley read Wragby; p. 4985, line 1, for fisheries read 
foreshores.—J. C. 
