864 Birds. 



him this season to place the matter beyond all doubt. An intelligent 

 ally of mine, Mr. H. Dennett, is of opinion that the dabchick sits 

 upon her eggs while covered. He has disturbed the bird too sud- 

 denly, he thinks, to allow her time to cover the eggs previously to 

 her quitting the nest, and yet he has invariably found them covered. 

 Should Mr. Dennett's opinion be correct, there is an end to all diffi- 

 culty ; for, considering the situation of the nest, the materials of 

 which it is composed, and with which the eggs are covered, it were 

 next to impossible they should not be as deeply and permanently 

 stained as they are found to be. Mr. Atkinson's observations appear 

 to me strongly corroborative of the opinion of Mr. Dennett. He 

 writes, " I never saw a nest, not deserted, left uncovered ;" and yet, 

 methinks, he must sometimes have come upon a nest so suddenly as 

 to compel the bird to leave without staying to pluck fresh weeds to 

 cover her eggs with. That " the covering almost invariably consisted 

 of freshly gathered weeds" does seem to tell against Mr. Dennett; 

 and yet, the bird, when she turns her eggs, must partially, at least, 

 remove the covering, and would naturally make it good with fresh 

 weeds. When she leaves the nest without being much hurried, she 

 may, as Mr. Atkinson describes, " peck away right and left," to make 

 the concealment more complete, even supposing the eggs to be 

 already covered. If Mr. Atkinson will make this a subject of obser- 

 vation in the ensuing breeding season, he will most probably be ena- 

 bled to confirm the opinion of Mr. Dennett. I have not the oppor- 

 tunity, nor indeed has Mr. Dennett : for the piece of water, on which 

 he has observed the dabchick to breed, exists no longer. The em- 

 bankment gave way two winters since, and Westmill Pond was left 

 an expanse of mud. It was on this muddy expanse Mr. Dennett 

 saw the poor dabchicks, left by the sudden drainage, hopping about 

 in most awkward fashion, like so many toads. 



I am further indebted to Mr. Atkinson for the solution of a diffi- 

 culty which occurred to R. Loe and myself, in connexion with the 

 nidification of the moorhen. Loe, in the course of a walk one day 

 last spring, took me to a small pond to show me where a pair of moor- 

 hens were breeding. We observed the young birds of a few days 

 old skulking under the banks ; but Loe discovered in a tuft of 

 grass, close to the water's edge, a second nest, which he was sure 

 was not there two or three days previously. The old birds could 

 hardly have been so soon thinking of, much less preparing for a 

 second family ; and no second pair would have been allowed to 

 settle in so limited a space : no doubt, therefore, this second nest 



