268 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



examining very carefully some rabbit-burrows without success, T. saw in the 

 distance a couple of ducks flying towards me from the river Exe. I there- 

 upon hid myself behind a gorse-bush which was close at hand, and on the 

 birds approaching nearer I at once saw they were the Shelduck I was in 

 search of. They alighted on a sand-hill, which was honeycombed with 

 rabbit-holes, about 200 yards from where I was hiding, and very soon one 

 of them disappeared. I walked towards the spot, and when the old drake saw 

 me he flew away. After examining all the holes carefully, I at last found 

 one at the entrance to which, and about the sides, was a quantity of down ; 

 this, of course, I at once concluded was the hole in which I should find the 

 nest. Putting my arm in as far as I could reach I could not feel anything, 

 but being provided with a shrimp-rake, to use as a digger, I commenced to 

 enlarge the hole, and after having dug a little way I again put my arm in, 

 and this time just managed to reach the nest, which contained eleven eggs, 

 the old bird having slipped to the other end of the hole. Several young 

 Wheatears were popping in and out of the rabbit-holes as if having a game 

 of hide and seek. A pair of Dunlins, in breeding plumage, allowed me to 

 approach very near, and although I looked carefully for eggs and young 

 I failed to see any sign of either, but should say they were evidently 

 breeding there somewhere. I came across several Ring Plovers, and two 

 pairs of Lapwings, which, from their cry and uneasiness at my approach, 

 led me to believe that they also had eggs or young near. A pair of Yellow 

 Wagtails and numerous Meadow Pipits and Sky Larks were the only other 

 breeding birds I saw. — Wm. E. Helman-Pidsley (Exeter). 



Quail nesting in Sussex.— On May 31st, while cutting a field of 

 clover in the parish of Angmering, Sussex, the nest of a Quail containing 

 eleven fresh eggs was laid bare ; they were brought to me as Landrail's 

 eggs. I have lived in this neighbourhood for thirty years, always keeping 

 a sharp look out for birds, but I have never before come across our little 

 friend Coturnix communis. — S. V. Clark (Angmering, Sussex). 



[Mr. Borrer, in his ' Birds of Sussex' (p. 188), says of the Quail that" in 

 the few instances in which the nest has been found in the Weald, it has 

 been in fields of wheat, clover, or grass put up for hay. Of late years Quails 

 have not been nearly so numerous in England as was formerly the case, 

 and we are inclined to attribute this to the enormous toll which is taken of 

 their numbers on both sides of the Mediterranean during their migration 

 northwards in the spring. Many hundreds would probably reach England 

 were it not for this wholesale destruction at this season of the year. — Ed.] 



Spoonbill in South Hants. — On the evening of May 25th a Spoonbill, 

 Platalea leucorodia, flew over my head within gunshot. It was flying iu 

 a south-westerly direction, and I could distinctly see the yellow feathers at 

 the back of its head. I saw one here last year on the 15th of August. — 

 John Stakes (Porchester, Hants). 



