Birds. 767 



Note on rare Waders occurring at Kingsbury Reservoir. The pigmy curly (Tringa 

 subarquata), and the greenshank (Totanus Glottis). Two specimens of each of these 

 birds were shot on the banks of the reservoir, on September 2nd, all birds of the year. 

 — Frederick Bond, Kingsbury, Middlesex, October 16, 1844. 



Additional Notes on the Moorhen and Dabchick. I will add here two or three 

 additional notes on the habits of the moorhen and dabchick. The latter bird, on 

 having arrived at its place of nidification, is in the habit of piling together a heap of 

 weeds, resembling a good deal its nests, except that it is rather smaller, and its de- 

 pression less ; and on these piles it rests during the night, until its nest has been con- 

 structed. In the course of the summer I visited the mere referred to in my notice of 

 the dabchick ; there were probably twelve or fifteen nests which came under my notice, 

 and nearly as many " resting-places." Every one of the nests, without exception, was 

 soaked through and through ; none were two inches above the surface of the water ; 

 most contained an egg, if not eggs, which were invariably covered. The moorhen, 

 though not usually, if at all, constructing a temporary resting-place analogous to the 

 dabchicks, yet occasionally, at least, builds a second nest, to accommodate a moiety of 

 its young when they have attained a size too large to permit the original one to con- 

 tain them all. And when the colony is sent to the second nest, one of the old birds 

 accompanies it. An instance of this habit occurred in the vicinity of my father's 

 residence when I was last at home. The female moorhen was the architect, and the 

 subsidiary nest she busied herself in constructing was built on a bough overhanging 

 the water. The weight of the structure at last became too great for the bough to 

 bear ; it gave way, and the nest was destroyed by its own weight, which caused it to 

 fall to pieces when it lost its horizontal position. The old bird seemed to be much 

 annoyed at the perversity of the bough and nest, or else at her own want of foresight, 

 and pecked among the debris with every symptom of rage. She soon, however, re- 

 newed her labours after having selected a more favourable site, and this time the 

 structure was successfully finished. Another nest in a pond near my father's garden, 

 was, after two or three eggs had been deposited, beautifully lined with last year's oak 

 leaves, regularly arranged, with their points directed upwards. — /. C. Atkinson ; Hut- 

 ton, Berwick-on-Tiveed, September 28, 1844. 



Note on Ducks nesting in Trees. — When two species of ducks occasionally depart 

 from the usual habits of their kind, by nesting upon trees, it may, I think, be reason- 

 ably supposed that they adopt similar methods of bringing their young to the water. 

 The following description, quoted by Mr. Yarrell from a note by Mr. Dann, shows the 

 manner in which this operation is performed by the golden eye, and will probably also 

 be found to apply to the mallard. : — " There have been speculations and opinions as 

 to the mode the golden eye adopts to carry its young down from the holes of the trees 

 in which they are hatched, which are frequently twelve or fifteen feet from the ground, 

 and at some distance from the water. That the bird does transport them is beyond 

 doubt. There is, I believe, but one person who has ever actually witnessed the man- 

 ner. M. Nilsson was not aware of it. The Laps whom I frequently interrogated 

 were also ignorant beyond the mere fact of the bird carrying them. The clergyman, 

 however, at Quickiock, in Lulean Lapmark, near the source of that chain of vast 

 lakes whence the Lulean river flows, was once a witness. Contrary to the general 

 character of the Lap clergymen in Lapland, this gentleman, with little to employ him, 

 took a great interest in Natural History and Botany. While botanizing by the side of 

 the lake near Quickiock, where golden eyes breed in great numbers, he saw a golden 



