NOTES AND QUERIES. 35? 



the low, sweet warbling notes of its song for half a minute without a break. 

 The Lesser Whitethroat may occur here wherever there are trees, tall 

 hedges or bushes, except in the depth of large woods. Its chief haunts are, 

 however, in country lanes, the double line of tall hedges forming a great 

 attraction to it, and here it generally nests. It seems sometimes to forsake 

 its nest without apparent cause ; of three nests I have found, all of which 

 were in lane hedges, I only obtained eggs from one. I have known the 

 eggs taken on several occasions by other collectors. Three nests which 

 I have are much like the vignette in Yarrell's ' British Birds,' small and 

 shallow. I do not find Wales mentioned in the books on birds as a 

 district in which the Lesser Kedpoll, Linota rufescens, breeds, but it no 

 doubt does so every year near Brecon. I have noticed it every summer 

 here for some years, but this season it has beeu unusually common, and 

 I have often heard its musical little trill and triple flight-note about the 

 alder swamps and adjacent hedges. In June last I found two nests of this 

 bird, placed in honeysuckle growing in tall hedges, each containing fresh 

 eggs. Both nests had the usual lining of white down, but one was peculiar 

 in having a quantity of honeysuckle bark-strips interwoven among the grass 

 round the outside of the nest. This beautiful little nest contained four 

 eggs, of a bright blue-green, blotched, two of them very boldly, with reddish 

 brown. — E. A. Swainson (Brecon). 



Zygodactylism in Non-zygodactyle Birds. — Although it has been 

 frequently observed that some birds with so-called " scansorial " feet do 

 not use them in climbing, I am not aware that the converse of this fact — 

 namely, the occasional assumption of the zygodactyle position by birds 

 with the normal disposition of the toes — has been recorded. My friend 

 Mr. E. B. Titchener and myself have, however, observed this in the case 

 of several species, notably the Collared Turtle Dove and the Common 

 Heron. My attention was first drawn to it in the case of the common fowl, 

 the position being naturally assumed when a bird with spreading toes, such 

 as those mentioned, walks or stands upon a narrow perch, though the 

 turning partly back of the outer toe is not confined to such occasions, as 

 we noticed it even in a Common Mynah, when nesting upon a stout 

 perch. In view of the /act that the zygodactyle structure occurs in widely 

 separated groups, these observations may prove of interest. — Frank Finn 

 (33, Charlotte Street, Portland Place). 



[We have remarked the same thing in some of the Owls, and in the 

 Osprey. — Ed.] 



Tufted Duck nesting in Hants. — Mr. Whitaker mentions the nesting 

 of the Tufted Duck, Fuligula cristata, m Nottinghamshire, in an old duck's 

 nest. A pair which nested here last year took possession of an empty 

 Coot's nest, built out on the water amongst the branches of a dogwood 

 bush. Two pairs have bred here this summer. The first nest contained 



