NATURE NOTES 
192 
157. Partridges. — How many eggs has a partridge been known to lay ? 
When I mentioned that twenty-four eggs were in a nest, the question was raised 
whether they were laid by one bird. I have kept a partridge’s nest close to my 
beehives under daily observation, and never saw more than the two old birds near 
it. In this there were twenty-four eggs, and twenty were hatched. The broods 
are large this year. At the end of July I saw twenty-two young birds with their 
two parents, and in several cases counted twenty. 
Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
158 . Cuckoos. — Another case has come to my notice to prove, if further 
proof be necessary, that cuckoos sometimes place their eggs in little birds’ nests 
by other means than the ordinary process of laying. A weak spot in a fence had 
been stopped by wire-netting rolled up into a ball. Inside this a pair of hedge- 
sparrows built a nest, the only access being through the meshes. Into this nest 
a cuckoo managed to introduce an egg. When fledged the young cuckoo was 
too large to escape, until the ball of wire netting had been opened by the friend 
who detailed the circumstance to me. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
159 . Has a Swallow a Difficulty in Rising from the Ground ?— 
I was lately a witness to the following little tragedy. A swallow had alighted on 
the road a few yards in front of me. I stood still, intently watching it and 
admiring its beautiful plumage, when to my horror a cat bounded over a wall, 
seized the poor bird and instantly disappeared, almost before I could realise what 
had happened. One would have thought that a bird whose life is spent almost 
entirely on the wing would have been about the last to fall a prey to the cat. 
August 1904. John Horne. 
160 . Nightjar’s Nests.— In reply to Mr. A. C. Mackie’s note (129)00 
“ Nightjar’s Nests ” in your current issue, I think I may throw some light on 
this interesting bird’s habits. The fact of Mr. Mackie finding a cup-shaped 
hollow near the eggs illustrates the habit of the nightjar (which, though not 
commonly known, I have lately been able to verify) of moving its eggs from its 
original nest if disturbed. The cup-shaped hollow Mr. Mackie found was doubt- 
less the original nest, and the eggs being at a distance from it had no doubt been 
removed owing to the bird having been in some way disturbed. The fact that 
they were only a foot away from the original hollow points to the fact that the 
bird had only moved them a small distance towards the spot she intended to 
remove them to, as they will generally remove them several yards when so dis- 
turbed. I do not think there are any grounds to suppose that the “hollow” 
Mr. Mackie refers to is intended by the bird to keep the “chicks in bounds” 
when hatched, as a mere hollow would be quite ineffective for this purpose. The 
nightjar has such small pretensions to a nest that probably the hollow was 
an accident. 
Eastcote, Middlesex, Herbert J. Rodgers. 
July 24, 1904. 
161 . Toads. — A year or so ago there was correspondence in your paper 
about the migration of small toads, which is merely a dispersion round the place 
of their birth, and occurs directly they have outgrown the tadpole stage. About the 
middle of June, when walking by the duck decoy below my house, I came across 
myriads of small toads very little larger than meat flies. The grass was full of 
them, and in open sp.aces a few inches square they were crowded together a 
hundred at a time. As I write (July 28), they are to be seen in every direction, 
300 or 400 yards from where they were born, and are double the size they were 
a month ago. They have been especially in evidence after two severe thunder- 
storms, and the villagers declare they have descended from the skies. They 
must be of great use in attacking the legions of aphis which, during the hot 
weather, have been abundant and destructive. Ducks and chickens gorge them- 
selves with these little toads. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
162 . Ants’ Undertakings. — I witnessed a curious incident a few days 
ago which, I think, illustrates in a greater degree than h.as been recorded before 
the hugeness of the tasks that ants will undertake. Passing along the main 
road between Doublebois and Bodmin, I perceived a caterpillar lying in the 
