126 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



more Bar-tailed Godwits than I ever saw before, some Green- 

 shanks, seven Sheld-Ducks, scores of Whimbrel and Knot, and 

 plenty of Dunlin and Einged Plover." These Godwits were 

 presumably the return passage of the unusual numbers regis- 

 tered as passing during the previous autumn (cf. Zool. 1909, 

 pp. 123, 128). 



17th. — A Long-eared Owl squatting on the ground at Colney 

 was found to be covering a young one,t which had had the ill- 

 luck to fall out of its nest in a spruce-fir hard by. On examina- 

 tion the nest was found to contain another nestling, which was 

 dead, but the one on the ground had been well cared for and was 

 nourished, a dead Thrush lying beside it for the next meal. 



31st. — Cuckoo Notes. — About a quarter to eleven this morn- 

 ing a Cuckoo was calling loudly on a tall beech-tree by my 

 front door, with that peculiar bubbling intonation which is the 

 characteristic of a female. About forty yards away there stands 

 an ivy-clad garden-wall, and at 4 p.m. the coachman, whose 

 window overlooks it, saw a Cuckoo — no doubt the same one I 

 had heard — searching this wall. Several times she was seen to 

 hang on to the ivy, evidently peering into its interstices in 

 different places, and twice the coachman saw her alight on the 

 ground, as if giving up her search for the present. Meanwhile 

 the Pied-Wagtails, whose nest containing one egg was deftly 

 hidden in a recess in the ivy at the top of the wall, were looking 

 on, but whether with indignation or with simple curiosity it is 

 hard to say ; neither do we know whether the Cuckoo discovered 

 their nest, which was unusually well hidden. 



June 1st. — The coachman, who at my request instituted a 

 watch, began taking observations from his window at 6 a.m., but 

 the Cuckoo was not seen to come to the ivy. There were two 

 Wagtail's eggs in the nest when we looked into it at 9 a.m. 



2nd. — Three Wagtail's eggs now in the nest. 



3rd.— At 7 a.m. the coachman heard the Wagtails calling, 

 and at 9 a.m. the nest contained the expected Cuckoo's egg, 

 as well as the three Wagtail's eggs already mentioned, all four 

 bearing a close colour resemblance to one another. The 

 Cuckoo's egg had probably been deposited in the nest between 

 6.30 a.m. and 7 a.m., and it was that which excited the Wag- 

 tails. 



