228 



NO TES— ORNITHOLOGY. 



Merlin Shot near Leeds. — On 29th May, while looking- for a Cuckoo's 

 egg in nest of Meadow Pipit on a moor at Adel, where I have found 

 several eggs and young in years past, I came across a gamekeeper who 

 during conversation told me that less than a month ago he shot a Merlm 

 {Falco cesalon) on Blackmoor, Moortown. This is a very likely place for 

 this bird to breed, and I am sorry its career was cut short, as no doubt that 

 was what the bird intended. He had a nest of Sparrow Hawks (Accipiter 

 ?iisns) under his eye near at hand and intends to shoot all very shortly. 

 Poor birds ! — Thos. Raine, 4, Woodland View, Woodland Lane, Chapel 

 Allerton, Leeds, 6th July 1900. 



[Pity the gamekeeper, or his employer, cannot be brought to book for 

 such wanton slaug-hter ! — Eds. Nat.]. 



Curious Nesting-places near Brigg. — Our birds as a rule generally 

 pick somewhat the same sort of nesting-place, but I have come across 

 several that were in most unlikely spots. The Stockdove, Robin, and 

 Mallard, also the Red-legged Partridge, often pitch upon very curious 

 sites. In 1878 a Mallard (Anas boschas) built on the very top of a bean- 

 stack. She laid eleven eggs and reared ten young ducks. Her mode of 

 landing her young down to the drain hard by is not known. In 1893 

 a Mallard had her nest in that of a Rook in the rookery at Bottesford 

 Moors. She broug-ht off six young ones and also got them down to the 

 drain unobserved. In 1879 a Pheasant (Phasianns colchicns) laid her 

 ' louter ' of eggs in a disused Sparrow Hawk (Accipiter nisus)'s nest in 

 Holme Plantation, North- West Lincolnshire. Robins (Erithacns rnbecula) 

 I have found building in old boots, old tin cans, a broken pitcher, a disused 

 pump spout, an old Swallow's nest in a cow-house, in trees, banks, ivy, 

 trellis-work, in fact the Robin takes up any-position, but it never builds far 

 away from the haunts of man. The Stockdove (Colnmba cenas) is also 

 a bird of many sites for nesting spots. Rabbit holes, holes in trees, on the 

 flat between the branches of pollarded trees, in ivy, holes in walls, disused 

 hawk's and owl's nests, and on the ground under the shade of thick furze 

 bushes. The Red-legged Partridge ( Caccabis rnfa) as a rule takes a site 

 like the English bird, but on occasion it takes to other locales. The top of 

 a stack, on the side of the roof of a thatched cottage, in a pollard willow, 

 on the top of an ivy-covered wall, in a rabbit-hole on the side of the cliff of 

 Yaddlethorpe gravel-pit — about a foot in, in a hamper where hens were 

 daily laying (in the garden at Bottesford Manor), and, lastly, in the corner 

 of a disused pigstye close to a cottage door. The Swallow (Hinindo 

 rustica) also takes curious places at times. I have known one build under 

 the branch of a dead ash tree. At Cadney, near Brigg, they build 

 under the arches that carry the roads across the carr drains. In these 

 cases the nest is only a foot and a half to two feet above the water. At 

 Messingham, North- West Lincolnshire, a Swallow built its nest under the 

 pommel of a saddle that hung in a horse stable. The owner would not 

 have it molested, although he frequently wanted it. In Lincolnshire ill-luck 

 follows the wilful disturbing of a Swallow's nest. The Great Tit (Parus 

 major) and Blue Tit (P. cceruleus) also pick on funny places for nesting. 

 Pump barrels, the skull of a horse, the slit of a letter box, and the ventilator 

 to a stable have all been used to my knowledge by the Blue Tit. The 

 Great Tit. is partial to a pump that is in use. Our garden at Bottesford 

 used to yearly furnish two examples of this, and the field at the back of the 

 house one. Pumping mig-ht destroy the nest somewhat at first, but the 

 birds always overcame the difficulty and reared at least one brood of young 

 each season. Rooks (Corvus frugilegus), too, sometimes choose curious 

 sites for building. At one time I knew a small larch plantation of quite 

 young growth that the rooks had taken a fancy to. There you could walk 

 by and look into the nests as you did so without any trouble. Plenty ot 

 large trees were in the neighbourhood, but these larches were chosen and 

 used. These trees are now grown up, but the rooks still stick to them. — 

 Max Peacock, The Manor, Bottesford, Lincolnshire, 4th July 1900. 



Naturalist, 



