Field Notes. 



269 



kept flying on in front of us ; and in one place we got to within 

 about a dozen yards of it before it flew away. It was very busy 

 picking up insects from off the bank, as is its wont before the 

 fruit time arrives. — F. M. Burtox, Highlield, Gainsborough,. 

 May 1909. 



Wood Pigeon Diphtheria. — There has been great interest 

 taken in this enquiry, although, according to the reports, 

 Yorkshire birds seem to have escaped the contagion. I have 

 been on two estates this April, and there the keepers seem to 

 think the birds shot have been in good condition. Strange to 

 say, on April 3rd, I picked up a dead Stock Dove at Eshton 

 that had undoubtedly died ^f this infectious disease, its gape 

 being one mass of cheese-like matter. Its eyes were bright^ 

 so that it had probabty been dead only a da\' or so ; the body 

 thin, breast-bone very prominent ; plumage exceptionally 

 good. — W. H. Parkin. 



Broken Eggs under Herons Nests. — Wiilst on a visit 

 to the heronrv^ near Gar grave on April 3rd, 1909, I again noted 

 dropped eggs under the nests. On this occasion there were 

 only three broken under say ten brooding birds' nests. In 

 other years I have noted considerably more, in fact, one j^ear 

 it was possible to tell easily which nests were occupied by the 

 broken egg or eggs underneath — these mostly fresh or only 

 very slightly incubated eggs. I have alwa^'s assumed that this 

 loss was due to the indifferent platform nests. Possibly the 

 early eggs become affected by the frost, and, on being sat, 

 break more easily and are thrown out. — \V. H. Parkin. 



Rook Law. — Referring to Mr. F. M. Burton's article in 

 ' The Naturalist ' for April ; some years ago I witnessed the 

 following occurrence, on what is known as a shard, i.e., a 

 large island in the middle of the river Lune at Lancaster. 



Some two miles up the river is the village of Halton, where 

 there is a large rooker}-, and from this I noticed a number of 

 birds come flying and chattering. They settled on this shard, 

 opposite the house I was then living in. The proceedings were 

 almost identical with those described by Mr. Burton. The 

 birds on alighting gathered in a circle several yards across, 

 leaving one of their party in the centre. Silence at once 

 ensued, and after a few seconds only, eight rooks deliberately 

 advanced towards the bird in the centre, and quickly killed it 

 with their beaks. It never offered to escape or defend itself. 

 Immediately the work was done, the whole assembly rose in 

 the air, and with loud cawings, fiew back to the rookery. 



1909 July I. 



