NOTES AND QUERIES. 465 



a mile from the clover-field before and after the 24th, and during the course 

 of cutting it, in the month of July, the mowing-machine disturbed " a large 

 brown hawk." No nest was found, and Mr. Besent thinks there was one, 

 but destroyed by the machine. Some time afterwards I saw two Harriers 

 on the wing leisurely beating a stubble-field within half a mile of Kingston ; 

 they were either birds of the year or females. The neighbouring keepers 

 tell me they have seen the birds during the past summer, which up to the 

 present moment have eluded both gun and trap. The grass in the neigh' 

 bourhood of the nest was much damaged and trodden down. — J. C. Mansel- 

 Pleydell (Whatcom be, Blandfordj. 



[On comparing one of the eggs above mentioned with a series in the 

 Natural History Museum it was evident that it belonged to Montagu's 

 Harrier, Circus cineraceus. — Ed.] 



Breeding of the Tufted Duck in Aberdeenshire. — With reference 

 to Mr. Borrer's communication on this subject (p. 427), I may mention that 

 on the 25th June last I found a Tufted Duck's nest, containing seven fresh 

 eggs, on the margin of the Loch of Park, near Aberdeen. It was placed 

 among Carices in a rather marshy spot, and most likely would not have 

 been detected had not the duck flown off as I passed. I took one egg for 

 the sake of the locality, but otherwise left the nest undisturbed, and was 

 glad to see the bird on it again an liour afterwards. The duck, on leaving 

 the nest joined the drake, who was swimming in a piece of open water 

 close by. Several other Tufted Ducks were in view at the same time. 

 Mr. G. Sim, of Aberdeen, to whom I communicated the above facts, 

 informed me that, so far as he was aware, the nest of this species had 

 not previously been discovered in the county. In certain other parts of 

 Scotland with which I am better acquainted it has bred freely for a number 

 of years past, and I have found many nests. — Wm. Evans (18, Morningside 

 Park, Edinburgh). 



[On this subject Mr. Harvie Brown writes: — " Of the breeding of the 

 Tufted Duck in Aberdeenshire, since Mr. Jex Long's record (Proc. N. H. 

 Soc. Glasgow, 1880, iv. p. 103), it has become abundant as a breeding 

 species, and also much more widely distributed. I could name many 

 localities in Scotland where it is now quite common." — Ed.] 



Breeding of the Tufted Duck. — Mr. Borrer's note upon the breeding 

 of the Tufted Duck in Aberdeenshire (p. 427) is incomplete, as he was 

 unluckily rather late in his visit to our mutual friend Mr. Hamilton, of 

 Skene. Had he looked for the ducks early in July, as I did, he would 

 have enjoyed the sight of several fine broods of Tufted ducklings diving 

 actively through the duckweed. At Skene the majority of broods hatch 

 out at the end of June and early in July ; and, from what Mr. Whitaker 

 told me, when introducing me to the Rainworth colony last spring, I should 

 imagine that in Nottinghamshire the birds hatch out about the same time 



