NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
'95 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
A Friendly Drake. — The illustration on page 130 of “ Rosie and the 
Drake,” makes me wish to send an account of a drake with whom I am person- 
ally acquainted, as a constant fund of amusement, at my son’s living in Devonshire. 
This drake will come from any distance within hearing across a grass field, where 
he is usually with a company of ducks, if he catches sound of anyone passing in the 
road ; he waddles along at topmost speed and often succeeds in reaching the passer- 
by, whom he rubs and quacks, at the risk of throwing the person down, or being 
injured himself. This has been going on for above a year, unless the would-be 
companion is dead and roasted quite recently. Happily, the road is little fre- 
quented. S. J. S. 
Nightjars (p. 159). — In June last year we were spending a fortnight on the 
bracken -covered Crockham Hill, near Oxted, and on one of our rambles we were 
startled to see a nightjar rise from the ground just in front of us, leaving an egg 
exposed. We had before heard the singular monotonous “jarring” cry of the 
bird at night, and on returning next day to look again for the strange creature, 
after a long search we discovered what would be called its nest, in reality, how- 
ever, nothing but the bare, hard ground, without the least approach to padding 
or covering, on which two eggs, of about the size of a pigeon’s egg, white with 
bluish-grey and brown blotches or mottles, were deposited. The bird, when sitting, 
was so exactly like a fallen log or piece of dead bracken in appearance, — it lies 
full length on its eggs— that we could never have been sure of finding it again had 
we not stuck a branch into the ground to mark the spot. With the aid of this 
landmark, we frequently approached unnoticed, and saw the bird ever in the same 
curious attitude, and at last we were fortunate enough to see first one, and the 
last evening of our stay, the second young nightjar hatched. They were helpless 
little balls of yellow-brown fluff, cuddled against each other on the hard ground. 
This last evening we also heard the other weird cry of the nightjar, something 
like a long-drawn “ wheep,” as he was seen sweeping past on noiseless wings, we 
fancied after prey. This call was widely different to the often heard monotonous 
jar. We brought the broken egg-shells home with us, and if your correspondent 
some day cares to come and see them, we shall be pleased to show them to him. 
The nightjar lue saw sitting appeared always the same, and we fancied it to be 
the mother bird. She was found in that entirely unprotected spot in the blazing 
noonday sun and in the dew of evening. 
South Beddington, Wallinglon, Surrey. M. CouPLAND. 
Cuckoo and. Hedge-Sparrow. — I found a hedge-sparrow’s nest on the 26th 
May, in which were five eggs, and as I was passing on I noticed a cuckoo perched 
on the fence opposite. Expecting to see something interesting, I went to a little 
distance and watched. The cuckoo made a short flight and returned, alighting on 
the top of the hedge just over the nest. It then disappeared over the other side, 
and soon, to my delight, flew back over the hedge with a hedge-sparrow’s egg in 
its beak, seated itself on the road, and tried to get the egg further into its throat, 
b inding it could not effect its purpose with its beak in a horizontal position, it 
threw its head back in a perpendicular attitude and swallowed the egg whole. 
The cuckoo then caught sight of me again, and rose into the air, making a circle 
or two round the spot, and lodged in an elm tree overhead. I went over and 
examined the nest, and verified the fact that one egg was missing, and on seeing 
me go over to the nest the cuckoo flew off and did not return. I took one egg, 
thinking the cuckoo wished to make room for its own egg, which I hoped I might 
see deposited, and especially I desired to see a solution of the point contested by 
ornithologists, i.e., as to the manner oi doing it, whether with the beak or claw. 
But after wailing some time, I gave up watching for the bird’s return. The three 
remaining hedge-sparrow’s eggs have since been hatched into as many healthy 
fledglings. J. C. Robertson. 
A'eston. 
Trout Fighting. — When living in Hampshire a few years ago I had special 
opportunities of watching the habits of trout. At the bottom of my lawn was a 
