462 TH*E ZOOLOGIST 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



A VE S. 



Grey Wagtail breeding in Sussex. — An instance of this came 

 under my notice a short time ago from an unexpected source. Some 

 " Bird and Tree Essays," written for the Society for the Protection 

 of Birds, passed into my hands, one of which was on " The Wagtail." 

 This was the work of a village school-girl in Sussex, whose home is 

 near the west bank of the River Arun. Her description of the Grey 

 Wagtail and also of its nest, which she found last spring with five 

 eggs, was so accurate that there could be no doubt as to the species. — 

 Julian G. Tuck (Tostock Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk). 



Hooded Crow in Bedfordshire : Effects of the War on Bird 

 Life. — Although the Hooded Crow (Corvus comix) is a fairly common 

 winter visitant to Bedfordshire, it is seldom seen other than solitary 

 or a pair together and scattered more or less generally over the 

 county. During the present autumn immigration they have certainly 

 been far more abundant than usual, and in one instance, on Nov. 8th, 

 I counted no fewer than thirty together on the Sewage Farm at 

 Newnham. Such occurrences may possibly be attributable to the 

 abnormal conditions on the Continent, and it would be of interest 

 to place on record any such observations on bird life from other 

 localities. — J. Steele Elliott (Dowles Manor, Salop). 



Courtship Habits of the Great Crested Grebe (Podicipes cristatus). 

 — In his interesting paper on " The Courtship Habits of the Great 

 Crested Grebe " which appeared in the last September issue of 

 the Zoological Society's ' Proceedings,' Professor Julian S. Huxley 

 gives an abstract of my own observations, published in the ' Zoologist,' 

 on the pairing and nesting habits of this species. On this, various 

 comments suggest themselves to me, but perhaps you can allow me 

 space for the following, viz. : — 



(1) " Selous observed numerous bouts of shaking, which he refers 

 to in various ways, &c." (p. 532). I cannot quite endorse this. It 

 would appear that I never saw " shaking bouts " in the sense that 



