Birds. 0979 



four eggs placed on the usual layer of fish-bones ; all of these T removed with care, 

 and then filled up the hole, beating the earth down as hard as the bank itself, and 

 replacing the sod on the top in order that barge-horses passing to and fro might not 

 put a foot in the hole. A fortnight afterwards the bird was seen to leave the hole 

 again, and my suspicion was awakened that she had taken to her old breeding-quarters 

 a second lime. The first opportunity I had of again visiting this place, which was ex- 

 actly twenty-one days from the date of my former exploration and taking the eggs, I 

 again passed the top of my fly-rod up the hole, and found not only that the hole was 

 of the former lenglh, but that the female was within. I then look a large mass of 

 cotton wool from my collecting-box, and stuffed it to the extremity of the hole, 

 in order to preserve the eggs and nest from damage during my again laying it open 

 from above. On removing the sod and digging down as before, I came upon 

 the cotton wool, and beneath it a well-formed nest of fish-bones, the size of a small 

 saucer, the walls of which were fully half an inch thick, together with eight beautiful 

 eggs and the old female herself. This nest and eggs I removed with the greatest care ; 

 and I now have the pleasure of exhibiting it to the Society, before ils transmission to 

 the British Museum, the proper resting-place of so interesting a bird's nest. This 

 mass of bones then, weighing seven hundred grains, had been cast up and deposited 

 by the bird or the bird and its mate, besides the unusual number of eight eggs, in the 

 short space of twenty-one days. To gain anything like an approximate idea of the 

 number of fish that had been taken to form this mass, the skeleton of a minnow, their 

 usual food, must be carefully made and weighed; and this I may probably do upon 

 some future occasion. I think we may now conclude, from what I have adduced, 

 that the bird purposely deposits these bones as a nest, and nothing can be better 

 adapted, as a platform, to defend the eggs from the damp earth. — John Gould; in 

 ' Zoological Society's Proceedings^ 1859, p. 152. 



On the Habits of the Black-winged Stilt, as observed on its occurrence in Sussex. — 

 On the 1 7th of May last a specimen of the black-winged stilt (Himantopus melano- 

 plerus) was killed on the banks of a small pond about a mile from this place, in 

 a partially enclosed district surrounded by unreclaimed moorland, near the junction of 

 Midhurst and Bepton Commons. This is the first time that the stilt has ever been 

 obtained or seen in the county of Sussex, and it would appear to be nearly equally 

 scarce in all parts of the British islands. Opportunities for observing the habits and 

 manners of these rare and accidental visitors so seldom occur, that I shall make no 

 apology for the length of this communication. Apart, however, from the rarity of the 

 species, there are circumstances attending the occurrence of the individual in question 

 which appear to me to be especially worthy of notice, as tending to throw some light 

 on its remarkable, and, to the ordinary observer, grotesque external conformation. 

 The pond to which I have alluded is very shallow ; the depth of the water, even at 

 fifteen paces from the shore, scarcely exceeding a foot. About that distance from the 

 banks the surface was covered with numerous blossoms of the water crow-foot 

 (Ranunculus aquatilis). On examining these next day, and frequently afterwards 

 during last month, I found them inhabited by numerous minute Dipterous and 

 Coleopterous insects (small flies, midges and beetles), comfortably nestled at the bot- 

 tom of the flowers among the stamens, from which, indeed, none but the most delicate 

 and attenuated instrument would be capable of extracting them without at the same 

 time injuring the blossoms. Now, not one of our wading or swimming birds, except 

 the stilt, possesses a beak perfectly adapted to this purpose. But the stilt has a bill 



