ROUGH NESTING NOTES FROM YORKSHIRE. 351 
any one else that I ever heard of. Iam not going to reveal the 
secret, for I have had bitter experience of that sort of thing. I once 
knew of a pair, and told a man who I thought was above suspicion, 
but he promptly went and shot one of them, which taught me 
a lesson I have not forgotten. Suffice it to say that under 
certain conditions the bird will sulk, and nothing will induce her 
to leave the nest; and in one instance on being touched by mistake, 
she feigned death, and allowed herself to be handled as if dead— 
a quivering of the eyelid was all that showed she was shamming. 
They are most prolific little birds, and I have known thirty eggs 
taken from one pair. I very much deprecate this sort of thing, 
but there are times when in pursuit of knowledge and experience, 
especially if one has to rely upon the good offices and infor- 
mation originally imparted by another, when all one can do is to 
sit tight. I may say that I see no harm in taking a clutch of eggs 
whatever, but after that I believe in allowing the birds to lay again, 
which they always do, and rear their young in safety. I found 
a nest of Locustella nevia on May 30th, containing five fresh eggs. 
The nest was in a big tussock of Aira cespitosa (common turfy 
hair-grass), in the middle of a big osier-bed, or willow garth as 
it is called in the county, and was made of a foundation of 
willow-leaves, &c., and coarse grass, a very little moss, and lined 
with finer grass—a bulky nest. All the Grasshopper Warblers, 
when driven off their nests in thick cover, run along the ground 
a few yards, for all the world like a Mouse; then fly up on to 
some twig, reed, &c., for a few moments; and afterwards drop 
down into the thick grass. 
I have examined a large number of Swifts’ nests this year, 
and so far from their being small and loose structures, they have 
been most bulky, and in every instance they contained fresh 
flowers with long stalks of the buttercup. Now I have found fresh 
flowers of the buttercup in the nest of our old friend ‘‘ Passer 
damnabilis ;”’ and I have often wondered whether the Swifts 
occasionally take possession of these nests and agglutinate them 
together with their salivary secretion. But I have found 
Swifts’ nests still containing fresh buttercups, with no Sparrows 
near, so that the Swifts must have taken them there themselves, 
though I never saw, or met with anyone who had seen them 
doing so. With all due deference to so excellent an authority 
