NOTES AND QUERIES. 231 



which was then fading in area. I noted all three here in 1914. — 

 William Wilson (Aberdeen, N.B.). 



Moorhen Nesting in Disused Nests of the Magpie. — Frequently 

 the Moorhen selects a nesting-site several feet above the water, 

 finding suitable accommodation on the tops of stumps, ivy-covered 

 trees, in overhanging bushes and such -like. In one instance that 

 came under my notice at Muggerhanger a pair had utilized as a 

 foundation for their nest a Eing-Dove's platform built in a hawthorn 

 tree overhanging a pond, some twelve feet above the water. But 

 what is unique in my experience is a pair using nests of the Magpie. 

 I was informed that three eggs had been taken from a nest on a 

 hawthorn tree on May 1st last, alongside Duloe Brook at Basmead, 

 Bedfordshire, and, wishing to satisfy myself on various particulars, 

 I visited that locality. The tree was some little distance from the 

 stream, and the nest thirteen feet above the ground, and scantily 

 lined with just a few blades of rush. Visiting another Magpie's nest 

 on May 15th, along the same brook and at some short distance away, 

 I found what was evidently the same bird sitting on four eggs, three 

 others being smashed on the ground beneath. This nest was built 

 in some very tall blackthorns, and seventeeen feet above the ground, 

 and in this instance a better lining had been added, but by no means 

 the complete inner lining to a normal Moorhen's nest. — J. Steele 

 Elliott. 



Malformed Beak of the Jackdaw. — A friend sent me a Jackdaw 

 with a curious malformed beak. It is a perfect copy of the beak of 

 the Common Crossbill. It is a wonder how the bird managed to 

 obtain its food, yet it was in good condition. A man shot it along 

 with three Books. The shooter said he was going to make scare- 

 crows of them to keep the Books from his potatoes, but my friend 

 noticed its curious beak, and asked him for it. I have now mounted 

 it for my collection. It was killed the last week in April, 1915, but I 

 do not know the exact date.* — William Daws (Mansfield, Notts). 



The Food of the Tawny Owl. — Two broods of Tawny Owls have 

 been under my observation during the last few weeks, and when a 

 keen young naturalist from one of our public schools paid me a visit 

 during the Easter holidays, I had the pleasure of showing him both 



* In a garden at a schoolfellow's house at Maidstone we were shown in 

 our boyhood a Jackdaw allowed to go about free with a clipped wing, and 

 find its own food, but nevertheless the upper bill was overgrown and curved 

 down, so that the beak looked like an eagle's exaggerated. — (Ed.) 



