Birds. 499 



again, and with the like result, except that both birds " fell ; " though I could not, in 

 my most eager ambition, think I had hit both, when they were ten or fifteen yards 

 apart. The fact was, they were unharmed by the lead, and preferred a hiding-place 

 in a thick hedge to a more extended flight. And perfectly safe they were in their hid- 

 ing-place : neither I nor my dog could give any further account of them at that time. 

 An ivied tree also has charms for them ; as well as a thick pollard oak. Where the 

 banks of the Whitadder are wooded I often see them ; and in one part a little below 

 Edrington-castle on the opposite side, where are some ivied trees close by a path which 

 overhangs the river, I have roused several. These always flew to the water, dived and 

 did not reappear. On or near a large pond at Foulden, adjoining the road and sepa- 

 rated by it from a row of cottages, six or eight may always be seen. They walk about 

 in the road, and near the doors, and are almost as tame as common ducks. This does 

 honour to the Scottish peasantry, for I am sure that in no part of England with which 

 I am acquainted would the birds, in such a situation, be left unmolested. At Fawley- 

 court in Herefordshire a single moorhen came to feed with the fowls and ducks during 

 the hard weather, and often might be seen a few paces from where the labourers were 

 getting their dinner; — it is almost needless to say that with them it was a favourite. 

 But my notes are assuming an undue length : I therefore will not trespass further on 

 the pages of ' The Zoologist ' or the patience of its readers. — J. C. Atkinson; Hutton, 

 January 18, 1844. 



Notes on the Dabchick. Some months ago I threw together a few notes on the ha- 

 bits of the dabchick, which I intended for the pages of ' The Zoologist ; ' they were 

 however left incomplete, and were consequently not sent for insertion. In the Decem- 

 ber number (Zool. 364) appeared Mr. Parsons' notes on the same subject, which served 

 to remind me of my unfinished paper, and at the same time hinted, that if sent now, 

 it would be de trop. But on reading Mr. P.'s account, I thought there was still ground 

 open to me ; and that, leaving out the observations which are common to both accounts, 

 and noticing only such facts as Mr. P., from difference of locality, or other circum- 

 stances, has left untouched, or those which exhibited a little variety in the habits of 

 the bird, my notes might yet be worthy of insertion. For a space of between two and 

 three years, the dabchick or little grebe came almost daily under my notice during se- 

 veral months in the year. They frequented a piece of water — locally called a mere — 

 of variable size. It averaged probably seven or eight acres ; but at times, owing to 

 drought and evaporation, its contents were almost exhausted towards the end of sum- 

 mer. But the rain and snow of winter soon refilled it, and it had attained its maxi- 

 mum about the middle or end of May. Up to this time it presented a surface unbro- 

 ken by a single weed ; but then speedily appeared a crop of water-herbage, so luxuri- 

 ant and dense as in many parts almost entirely to conceal the water. A spot thus 

 adapted to the habits of water-fowl was not likely to remain untenanted. Coots, moor- 

 hens, wild-ducks &c. frequented it, and the little grebe bred there in numbers every 

 spring. Having taken their departure at the close of the preceding autumn, these little 

 birds generally reappeared about or a little before the middle of April; the 13th or 14th 

 are my dates in the years 1839, 1840. It was observable that the whole group, to the 

 number of twelve or fourteen in those years,* made their appearance at the same time: 

 there were no successive arrivals, if I except the occasional arrival of a single pair sub- 



* This year I believe there were from fifteen to twenty pairs, besides numbers of 

 coots and moor-hens. 



