NOTES AND QUERIES. 385 



time, a perfect egg being taken from the bird. In 1902 several pairs 

 nested at Chawston and Wyboston, and two young were taken from 

 a nest at Harlington. In 1903 seven pairs were reported as nesting, 

 including a nest at Carlton in a dead tree lying on the ground, and 

 the one reported at Ampthill ('Field,' July 18th). In 1904 young 

 were also reared successfully at Elstow, Kenhold, Kempston. From 

 that year its nesting haunts and the numbers killed have been far too 

 numerous to be worth individually recording ; if one might venture to 

 estimate their present numbers in that county it would be upwards of 

 two hundred to three hundred pairs, as in every parish they appear to 

 be known and probably nest. It is already the commonest species of 

 Owl, and undoubtedly still on the increase. In April of the present 

 year I saw no fewer than four during a day's ramble, and others on 

 numerous occasions since during visits to that county. Our local 

 taxidermist kept a record of this bird as sent in to him until he had 

 received upwards of fifty, and up to the present time probably three 

 times that number have passed through his hands. He adds : — 

 " I never yet found a feather in their stomachs, always insects or 

 mice. One killed at Goldington was feeding on a Water Shrew. The 

 sharp winters do not seem to affect them in the least." The increase 

 of the Little Owl has unfortunately been accompanied by the decrease 

 of the one-time common Barn- Owl. They are exceedingly noisy at 

 night, and soon make their presence heard. There is no doubt but 

 that in a few years this species will extend its distribution over this 

 country to a very considerable extent. — J. Steele-Elliott (Dowles 

 Manor, Salop). 



Variety of Coot's Eggs, and Others. — A river-keeper, who has a 

 collection of eggs, showed me four taken late in June, and he supposed 

 they were other than those of the Coot, but they undoubtedly belonged 

 to that species — and, indeed, the man himself said the nest was very 

 like a Coot's. It is well known that the dark spots upon the eggs 

 of this noisy, quarrelsome bird are generally small, and equally distri- 

 buted over the entire surface of the shell, but in this case the spots 

 were large, and all collected at the larger end — at least upon three out 

 of the four — and the ground colour being somewhat of a lighter stone 

 shade than usual, the markings were the more conspicuous. As there 

 were but four eggs in the nest, these were slightly incubated, and, 

 being late in the season, it is quite possible they were the produce of 

 a second brood, or at least of a second nest where the first had been 

 robbed. I recollect many years ago taking eggs of the Moorhen not 

 far from the neighbourhood where the above-named Coot's were found, 



