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NOTES AND QUERIES. 

 i 



AVES. 



Nesting Habits of the Wren. — It is a well-known fact that the 

 Common Wren [Troglodytes parvulus) builds one or more unlined nests 

 near the one intended for breeding purposes. On June 19th, 1904, I 

 found a nest containing five nearly fledged young birds, near which 

 was one of these unlined or " cock " nests, as they are often called. On 

 the afternoon of June 19th the young had left the nest in which they 

 had been hatched, and on the evening of June 20th I was surprised to 

 find that they had taken up their quarters inside the "cock" nest. 

 They remained in their new abode, where they were fed by their parents, 

 until June 23rd, but after that date only returned to it at night, and 

 forsook it altogether after July 6th. I have never before known a 

 " cock" nest to be used for such a purpose, though the male birds are 

 supposed to use them as roostiug-places. — Chas. H. Bentham (Keymer, 

 East Hill Eoad, Oxted, Surrey). 



Hairy Variety of the Moorhen. — About the middle of January a 

 specimen of this curious variety was caught by a Dog quite near Bury 

 St. Edmunds, and taken to Mr. Travis, the birdstuffer, in that town. 

 It is evidently a young bird of last year, warm sandy brown above, 

 greyish white below, with the head and throat almost of the normal 

 colour. The texture of the breast-feathers rather reminded me of the 

 coat of a wire-haired terrier, but Mr. Travis remarked that to him it 

 was suggestive of the plumage of an Emu. The only record of this 

 variety in the current series of this Journal seems to be that by 

 Mr. Forrest (Zool. 1901, p. 108), who has had the unusual oppor- 

 tunity of examining five specimens, and also mentions the Emu by 

 way of comparison. — Julian G. Tuck (Tostock Eectory, Bury St. 

 Edmunds). 



Ruddy Sheld-drake (Tadorna casarca) in Lancashire. — On October 

 9th, 1892, after a westerly gale and an abnormally high tide which 

 flooded the marshes of the Mersey Estuary, and drowned many cattle 

 and Sheep, a Ruddy Sheld-drake was shot by Mr. James Mercer on 

 some flooded meadows at Ditton, near Widnes. Mr. Mercer, who has 



