190 



Communications on Birds. 



(1) Notes regarding a Double Nest of the Corn Bunting 

 ( Ember tza miliaria, L.) found at Coltcrooks, near Gordon. 

 By Stuart Douglas Elliot, S.S.O., Edinburgh. (Plate 

 VIII.) 



There is sent herewith a photograph of a curious double nest, which 

 was picked up in a corn field at Coltcrooks, near Gordon, by Mr William 

 Elliot, Builder, Edinburgh, on Monday, l7th September 1894. It 

 consists of two distinct nests, about an inch apart, and each about 

 2i inches in diameter inside. The fountain is formed of dried grass 

 and corn fibre, woven in one piece about 8 inches in diameter. The 

 nests are towards one side of this, and are formed of finer fibre, with 

 a slight lining of hair. The nest shown on the right of the photograph 

 is not so well finished as the other, but it is quite distinct and 

 carefully formed. 



The egg shown in the nest, on the left of the photograph, was 

 found on the under side, where it had evidently slipped down from 

 the nest on the corn being cut. It unfortunately got broken in 

 transit to Edinburgh, and was found to be quite fresh. The shell 

 was reformed with plaster-of-Paris, but the lines of breakage are 

 quite distinct. 



A notice of the nests and egg appeared in the Scotsman of 19th 

 September, and in the Berwickshire News of 25th September; but no 

 one has brought forward any similar case. Mr Tom Speedy, the well 

 known Edinburgh naturalist, has pronounced them to be those of the 

 Common Bunting, but he has never seen anything similar to the double 

 nest. His opinion is that both are the work of one pair of birds ; 

 that the first formed was discarded for some reason, and the other 

 built. This is not unusual, but the second nest is generally placed 

 at some distance from the first. 



The corn among which the nests were found was a heavy crop of 

 oats, which had been laid by the August rains. The nests had 

 evidently been built after this, but the shearers (a reaping machine 

 being useless in the circumstances) had not noticed them, and when 

 Mr Elliot found them they were lying on a sheaf about to be tied 

 up. It is probable that there may have been other eggs, but these 

 could not be traced. It would be interesting to know if any similar 

 case has been noted as occarring in Berwickshire or district. 



