86d THE ZOOLOGIST. 



in small thick belts of Scotch fir, and also in thick woods, but never very 

 far from a path or road through the wood. Why is this? One nest was 

 about 15 ft. from the ground, the other about 12 ft. ; one was, I thought, 

 on the base of an old Wood Pigeon's nest; I am not sure of the other. 

 Round one were the remains of no less than eight rats, about one-third 

 grown. I should not have written " remains," but rather dead ones, for it 

 was the sight of two dead rats under the tree which first made me look about. 

 I took the castings at the foot of both nests and soaked them in water, and 

 made out the feathers of some finch and heads of small mice, &c. I cannot 

 understand how folks who call themselves "sportsmen," or "lovers of 

 nature," can allow Owls and Kestrels to be killed because a few cases have 

 been proved in which they have killed winged game. I have Kestrels close 

 to 340 young pheasants this season, and have not lost one of the latter. 

 I have always found the remains of mice, beetles, &c, in the castings of 

 Kestrels. — T. J. Mann (Hyde Hall, Sawbridgeworth, Herts). 



[The reason for the proximity of Owls' nests to " a path or road through 

 the wood," is probably that such a position enables the birds to get food 

 for their young more easily and speedily. Keepers feed the pheasants in 

 the rides; rats, mice, and small birds come out in these rides to pick up 

 the pheasants' leavings, and are immediately seen by the Owl which is 

 watching for them. The latter glides noiselessly off the bough on which 

 it is sitting, picks up the " quarry," and is back at the nest in no time. If 

 the nest were situated in a thick part of the wood, fewer vermin would be 

 seen there, and the Owl would have to hunt at a distance from home, 

 thereby wasting time, and incurring much additional labour. This hardly 

 applies to the Barn Owl, however, which we have often seen hunting at a 

 considerable distance from its nesting place. — Ed.] 



An Eider-Duck Farm. — Writing to * The Globe,' a recent visitor to 

 Iceland thus describes the manner in which the Eider Duck is there 

 protected for the sake of the eider-down of commerce, which is so highly 

 esteemed : — " One of the larger Eider-Duck farms is situated on a small 

 island in the bay at Reykjavik, and, with the permission of the owner, can 

 be visited by strangers. Not much agricultural labour or ingenuity is 

 expended by the Eider-Duck farmer upon his property. It consists for the 

 most part of a large field of stunted grass, which has been blown by the 

 wind and worked by the action of the weather into round hummocks, such 

 as may be frequently met with all over the barren and devastated country 

 of Iceland. In the recesses and cavities between the hummocks the Eider 

 Ducks may be seen sitting on their nests. Of these there are several scores, 

 and the birds themselves when sitting are perfectly tame, some of them 

 even allowing a stranger to stroke them with the hand. They are not all 

 hatched at the same time, and many are still in the egg when the others 

 are hatched and swimming about in the sea. The drake is a handsome, 



