NOTES AND QUERIES. 159 



the top, so a dome was partly formed in this case. The entrance to 

 the cavity was a narrow vertical slit at the side ; this was partly filled 

 up with moss from the inside as in the other instance. The nest 

 contained half-fledged young. In both these cases the contents of 

 the nest could not be reached by the hand, owing to the smallness of 

 the aperture and depth of the nest. Very little of the nesting mate- 

 rials was in view, the nest being practically built inside the hole. 

 More curious still was a nest I saw in Denbighshire in June, 1908. 

 It was built in a hole in a bare slate-built garden- wall overhung by 

 thick laurel-trees, and consequently in a very dark position. The 

 front of the nest, which was not domed owing to the confined space, 

 was set back six or seven inches from the face of the wall so that no 

 part of the nest was showing outside ; the fact of the old birds 

 carrying food to the young betrayed the nest. Here again the hole 

 in the wall — a horizontal slit — was too small to insert the hand. I 

 may add that last year a Wren built in a hedge in my garden. The 

 nest was completed with the exception of the lining on March 20th, 

 and then apparently deserted ; on June 7th, when I chanced to look 

 at the nest, the bird flew out, and it contained a full clutch of fresh 

 eggs. Mr. J. Steele Elliott records a somewhat similar case in ' The 

 Zoologist' for 1905 (p. 111). As regards the habit of building super- 

 numerary nests, I do not believe that it is so universal as is generally 

 supposed, though it is undoubtedly of frequent occurrence. It may 

 be that the habit can be accounted for as being more an outlet for 

 superabundant energy — as is the case with some of the Weaver-birds 

 — than as serving any utilitarian purpose. — S. G. Cummings (Upton, 

 Chester). 



Swan Marks.- — It may be useful to call attention to "S'enssieult 

 les privil6ges, ordonnances et statuts que les seigneurs ont sur la 

 riviere de Scarpe, pour visiter et marquer les cignes des marques 

 desdits seigneurs." This paper, dated Aug. 18th, 1547, is illustrated 

 with ten figures of Swans, under each of which the mark on the bill 

 is described in full. It is preserved in the Archives de Flines, is 

 printed with other documents on pp. 318-322 of ' Memoires de la 

 Societe Nationale des Sciences, de 1' Agriculture et des Arts de Lille,' 

 Annee 1850 (1851), under the title, " Nouveaux Analectes ou Docu- 

 ments in6dits . . . ," by M. le Glay, and is thus completely buried 

 and lost sight of to those interested in Swan-nicks. — C. Davies 

 Sheebobn. 



Reeve in Gloucestershire. — On Sept. 1st, 1909, a Eeeve {Machetes 

 pugnax) was shot by Mr. Cook near Tetbury, about half a mile from 



