ROUGH NESTING NOTES FROM YORKSHIRE. 353 
were, I detected through my glass three pairs of Tufted Ducks, 
and on looking over a small island I found two nests, each con- » 
taining ten eggs completely covered up with down. The other 
Ducks which I have found breeding this season in a wild state in 
various parts of the county are the Mallard, Teal, Shoveller, and 
Pochard. 
Nightjars have been common. I took a friend to obtain a 
photograph of two eggs im situ that I had found on a moorside. 
The hen harmonized so beautifully with the dead bracken and 
bare ground that it was some time before I could make him see 
her. After photographing the eggs he fastened green cloth over 
the camera, tied a thread to the shutter, and then hid behind a 
large stone about twenty yards away. ‘Though an hour was 
allowed she failed to come back, so we pinned portions of the 
bracken, which was growing all round, on to the green cloth, and 
then hid up again, when, after waiting about twenty minutes, on 
she came. Allowing a few minutes for her to settle, my friend 
took his shot, and an excellent one it has turned out. 
This same friend told me of a prolific nest. Four years ago 
he found a Carrion Crow’s nest; the next year it was tenanted by 
a Long-eared Owl, very abundant in the county; last year a 
Sparrowhawk took possession, and this year a Kestrel. 
Everybody heard with the greatest regret of the recent 
shooting of an Osprey near Beverley—audi alteram partem. 
Some time ago, on the gentleman’s estate I have before men- 
tioned as being such a paradise for birds, an Osprey appeared 
and remained for six weeks; when, although it levied heavy toll on 
the big Trout in the lake, it was a welcome visitor, and allowed 
to pursue its own habits. Would that there were more such 
naturalists, and such havens of refuge! Some men, I verily be- 
lieve, would shoot at an archangel himself if he appeared on the 
wing. A fine of five shillings is ridiculously inadequate; when 
_ five pounds can be obtained for the specimen it is no deterrent 
at all. 
I am afraid that the laws relating to bird-protection are in 
many cases but a farce; for example—shade of Dracon!—in 
some places the eggs are allowed to be taken, but not the young 
or old birds, and, as Mr. Southwell pointed out in an excellent 
letter to ‘ The Field,’ it is not fair that the onus of getting up a 
Zool. 4th ser. vol. II., August, 1898. QA 
