NOTES AND QUERIES. 353 



either side at an angle of about 45° with the body ; but when the bird 

 is under water, the angle, when the legs are at the forward part of 

 each stroke, is about 90°, while at the end of each stroke the tarsi and 

 feet are extended far bebind the tail. The appearance of the bird as it 

 traverses the bottom of the trench in an erratic course — now thrusting 

 its head into the vegetable refuse which has collected in the hollows, 

 now disappearing bodily beneath it, with its flattened body, closely 

 folded wings, and apparently disproportioned feet — suggests some huge 

 frog ratber than a bird. My observations in the open on the position 

 of the wings and feet under water are borne out by those made upon 

 my captive bird in a bath. It may be of interest to state that this 

 bird, in coming to the surface, often protruded only its head and neck, 

 its body remaining submerged until it dived again. The Dabchick 

 seems loth to take wing, but now and then one may be seen flying low 

 along the surface of the water. In alighting, this species, like the 

 Great Crested Grebe, apparently never thrusts its feet forward to 

 check its course as Ducks and Swans do, but strikes the water with its 

 breast and belly, and glides along the surface for some distance with 

 feet projecting behind its body and above the water. There are several 

 recorded cases of Dabchicks having been choked in attempting to 

 swallow a Miller's Thumb (Coitus gobio). On February 21st, 1902, 

 when Mr. Coward and I were walking on the bank of the trench I 

 have already spoken of, on the look-out for Dabchicks, we saw a dead 

 bird floating on its back. It had only been dead for a few hours at 

 most, for its eyes were not sunken, and there were living parasites on 

 its feathers. A Miller's Thumb was firmly wedged, belly upwards, in 

 its mouth. It seems hardly likely that the bird had met its death 

 owing to its inability to swallow a fish seventy-two millimetres in 

 length, for, on dissecting it, we found that the gullet was capable of 

 enormous distention. What was probably the true explanation of the 

 tragedy was apparent on cutting away the bird's lower mandible, for 

 we then saw that the recurved spines on the gill-covers of the fish 

 were firmly fixed in the bird's flesh just below the angle of the gape 

 on either side. This made it impossible for the bird to disgorge, and 

 no doubt greatly increased the difficulty of swallowing its prey. The 

 stomach of this bird contained a few small pebbles, one full-grown 

 and unbroken Bythinia tentaculata, several fragments of that mollusc, 

 and fragments of insects, apparently larvse of beetles or dragonflies. — 

 Chas. Oldham (Knutsford). 



Birdsnesting in August. — In some previous issues of the ' Zoolo- 

 gist ' (1896-7-8) I have given records of nests found in Cambridgeshire 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. X., September, 1906. 2 e 



