Birds. 5517 



Abundance of Wagtails.— Observing an article on the great abundance of the pied 

 wagtail (Motacilla Yarrellii) in the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 53(33), and having paid some 

 attention to this and the allied species, M. alba, for some years, is my reason for 

 offering a few remarks on the subject. I would advise Captain Hadlield, the next 

 time he meets with such a flock, to kill a few of the lighter-coloured birds, more par- 

 ticularly those that fly into trees, and he will probably find himself in possession of 

 M. alba. The latter appears here in spring and autumn, and is to be met with in 

 ploughed fields or gardens: should you see one and start it, on rising it often appears 

 to fly over a hedge-row, but, if you watch it closely, you will generally find it in the 

 hedge-row, and often perching. I have never met with or heard of its breeding in this 

 neighbourhood; but I have taken two nests of eggs in Whittlesea Fen, in Hunting- 

 donshire: one nest was in a reed stack, the other was in a mound of peat that had 

 been thrown out of a drain ; I also found a third nest under the end of a plank laid 

 across a drain as a temporary bridge : with this I was unfortunate, although I watched 

 it for several days, for, on the day I intended taking it, it had been unfortunately dis- 

 covered by some children and destroyed. Although I have frequently looked for it, 

 I never met with M. alba in the winter season, but M. Yarrellii is to be seen any 

 fine day in winter running on the banks of rivers and brooks. On a winter's day, 

 while fishing in the Trent, it has often pleased me to see M. Yarrellii running within 

 a few yards of me, and I have as often looked in vain for M. alba ; but perhaps 

 M. alba changes its plumage in winter? Can any ornithologist answer this question? 

 — Samuel Carter ; 20, Lower Moseley Street, Manchester, January 30, 1857. 



Notes on the Great Bustard. — I have lately been enabled to obtain a few particulars 

 with regard to the habits of the great bustard (Otis tarda), as observed in this neigh- 

 bourhood, which may prove interesting to some of your readers : I have derived this 

 information from the dealer by whom the specimens of this noble bird formerly in the 

 possession of Lord Derby, and those at present in the gardens of the Zoological 

 Society, were furnished. He tells me that, notwithstanding the increasing demand 

 for both eggs and the birds themselves, they are still very numerously distributed over 

 the whole of the flat country surrounding Leipzic, more especially so in the vicinity of 

 Halle ; and, from their shy habits, and the facility of perceiving the approach of an 

 enemy afforded them by the nature of the country, which, for miles upon miles, is un- 

 broken by hedge or wall, there is every reason to suppose that a long period will elapse 

 before the species be thoroughly extirpated. The eggs are usually laid towards the 

 middle of June, and are invariably deposited in the most sequestered part of a field of 

 grain or clover, sometimes in a hole scratched in the earth, but more generally without 

 an attempt at a nest of any kind. There can be no doubt that numbers annually hatch 

 out their broods in safety, for the finding of the eggs must, of course, be purely acci- 

 dental. The number of the latter is usually two, but instances occur nearly every 

 season of three being laid ; this, I believe, has also been observed in our country, for, 

 if I remember rightly, one or more of the nests found about twenty years ago in 

 Norfolk contained three eggs. These are sold by the dealer I have named at the price 

 of one shilling for a fresh egg, and half-a-crown for one that has been sat on for some 

 time: those in the latter condition are, immediately on their being obtained, wrapped 

 up in wool and sent to different parts of Holland, in which country there seems to be 

 at present a mania for rearing these birds ; Herr Richter, however, seemed to have 

 but a faint opinion of the skill employed by the receivers, and informed me that in 

 very few instances were the young produced, and that, when this was the case, they 



