154 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
635. Jottings from East Suffolk.— On the evening of June 28, 
while resting for a few minutes on a footbridge crossing a small stream, I noticed 
a swallow flying in among the boughs of an ash tree close by. Keeping an eye 
on the bird, 1 saw it hover for a second or so close to a horizontal bough of 
about 4 inches in diameter. Moving so as to get a clearer view of the spot, I 
caught sight of four young ones sitting close together on this bough near its 
junction with the trunk of the tree. After hawking awhile for insects near by, 
one of the old birds again approached, and, threading its way among the boughs 
and twigs, fed one of its young ones. This was repeated a third time before I 
left. On the way home, about a mile from this spot, a pair of swallows began 
mobbing my dog just as they will a cat. Knowing they must have young ones 
close by, I searched for them, and soon found three young birds sitting in a 
sallow bush overhanging a ditch. It may not have fallen to the lot of every- 
one to see the young house-martins, after they have left the nest, taking food on 
the wing from their parents’ beaks. The act is performed with such e.\ceeding 
quickness and dexterity that it needs pretty close watching to detect it. 
With many species of birds the feeding of the young is a very pleasing and 
interesting operation to witness. Not long ago I fell in with a family of pied 
wagtails in the road. Both old and young birds were running nimbly about 
catching insects, often making short flights in pursuit of their active prey. 
Whenever the father or mother made a capture, a young bird would run up and 
take it from its parent’s beak. 
A row of young red-backed shrikes perched side by side on a rail or gate, 
patiently awaiting the arrival of the old birds with food, is a quaint and pretty 
sight. But I know of no bird concerning which the important business of 
feeding the young is more entertaining to watch than the common water-hen, 
and on ponds where ornamental water-fowl of various kinds are kept it is often 
the motherly old water-hen, with her family of little black chicks, which attracts 
the most attention. 
A pair of gold-crested wrens built their nest this year in a }’ew tree near this 
house. It was placed near the end of a bough, at the height of about 12 feet 
from the ground. The young birds left the nest on July 4. 
Blaxhall, Suffolk. G. T. Rope. 
636. Sand-Martins. — Last year from fifty to sixty sand martins nested 
in a disused pit in this village. This year not one has returned. What can be 
the cause ? It is not likely that the whole colony perished abroad or during their 
migrations. I looked for them day after day at the time they usually return in 
the spring. None turned up to inspect their old quarters; and so the falling of 
the earth at one end near their borings does not seem to be a reason for their 
disappearance. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
637. Long-eared Owls. — Last night I heard five or six of these birds 
calling to each other in South-acre wood, where there is a quantity of spruce 
firs, which they much affect. It seemed to me it was a case of old and young 
birds talking to one another from different points, a hundred yards or so apart. 
Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
638. Double Nest of Great Tit. —I have just seen a double nest, 
which, in its surroundings and circumstances, is quite extraordinary, and of 
which I send a rough diagram. Three large flower-pots had been placed inside 
each other bottom upwards. Two pairs of great tits made a double nest upon 
the outside of the bottom of the lowest pot ; the access to the nest being 
through the holes of the two pots above. The double nest, which is circular 
to fit the pot, is like a flat piece of felt, composed of hair, wool, and moss. It is 
8 in. in diameter, and 2 in. thick. In this are two cup-like depressions, similar 
to those in a bagatelle board, 2 in. broad and in. deep. These are the 
nests proper. They are 2 in. apart ; there is no partition or screen between 
them above the level of the double nest ; and they contain three eggs each. 
What adds to the strangeness of this arrangement is the character of great tits. 
They are fierce and unsociable in their habits, and very suspicious of each other ; 
so much so that uniting together for nesting purposes is most unusual. As the 
