NOTES AND QUERIES, 31 



Bath, by invitation, I spent a delightful May day in 1897 with this species. 

 Having procured the assistance of the gamekeeper, I was rowed to where 

 the rushes grew, and examined a dozen or more nests, nearly all containing 

 eggs ; one with four eggs in it, I remember distinctly, would have been 

 difficult to find by anyone but an experienced ornithologist, on account of 

 the eggs being almost hidden from view by the decayed portions of the 

 rushes. They had without doubt been carefully concealed by the parent 

 birds, and probably by the female after depositing her egg. This nest, or 

 rather more thau receptacle for the eggs, was situated on one of the fallen 

 and collected masses of reeds, &c, in the centre of the lake, and had I 

 asked my companion I do not think he could have pointed the exact spot 

 where the eggs were. At the several nests around the never-failing springs 

 in the neatly arranged gardens of the Bishop's Palace, Wells, I have never 

 found the eggs concealed. As a brief summary, I conclude that until the 

 full clutch of eggs is laid they may or may not be hidden, according to 

 the abundance of Jays or Magpies in the neighbourhood ; but after in- 

 cubation has commenced it would be an exceptional case to find the eggs 

 concealed, by reason that the sitting bird would not absent herself long 

 enough from the nest, to allow of the visitation of an egg-sucker, although I 

 have, in company with the above-mentioned keeper, watched a Magpie for 

 hours, perched immediately over a sitting Pheasant, waiting patiently until 

 the time arrived for her to feed. — Stanley Lewis (Wells, Somerset). 



Mr. Hewitt asks for the experience of others with regard to the Moor- 

 hen's nest. May I state that I have never seen any covering over the eggs 

 of this bird, though I have found numbers of nests in my own and other 

 counties? I see no suggestion of such a habit in 'Yarrell' or Howard 

 Saunders's ' Manual.' But in Seebohm's ' History of British Birds ' (vol. ii. 

 p. 561) there is this statement: — " The Waterhen generally covers her 

 eggs, when she leaves the nest, with pieces of surrounding vegetation." — 

 W. Stoers Fox (St. Anselm's, Bakewell). 



Little Bustard and Great Shearwater at Lowestoft.— Early in May, 

 1898, a male Little Bustard [Otis tetrux), in full summer plumage— a con- 

 dition in which it is very rarely met with in this country, and the first in- 

 stance known to me in the eastern counties — was killed at Kessingland, 

 near Lowestoft, Suffolk. For obvious reasons the event was not made 

 public till after the close-time had expired, when a photograph of the bird 

 was sent to me. On the 14th November, 1898, the fresh skin of a Great 

 Shearwater (Puffinus major), which had been brought in by one of the 

 Lowestoft fishing boats, was sent for my inspection by Mr. Bunn of that 

 towu, who al>o had three live Storm Petrels about that time. Both the 

 above-mentioned birds are now in a local collection. — Thomas Southwell 

 (Norwich). 



