10 
NATURE NOTES. 
are constantly to be seen ; one hears them before seeing them as 
they whizz through the air, and when they settle, the trees or 
ground become black with them. The last time I was fishing, I 
saw about two acres of ploughed land thickly covered with them. 
On another recent occasion, when on the Ley, it was a pretty 
sight to see a covey of young partridges led by their parents to 
the water’s edge to drink. Owls are numerous, and often at 
night have I listened to the sharp “ kee-wick,” “ kee-wick,” of the 
screech-owl. Of less common birds I may mention the bittern, two 
good specimens of which the landlord of the Sands Hotel has in 
his billiard-room ; he also showed me an osprey, which, however, 
I think he said he shot at Torquay. I was not fortunate enough 
to see one of those interesting birds myself, but the boatmen told 
me that they sometimes visit the Ley. 
At certain seasons the plants that grow under the water are 
an impediment to fishing operations, and this exceptional year, at 
one time, it was quite difficult to propel the boats to the fishing 
grounds. I have noticed webs joining the beautiful fronds of 
these sub-aqueous plants, but the boatmen could not tell me what 
spider it is that spins them. From the shingle bank separating 
Slapton Ley from the sea came, says Mr. Page in his Coasts of 
Devon, the first seakale eaten in England. 
It remains to be said that there is a good hotel at Slapton 
Sands, where permission to fish in the Ley is obtained. In the 
summer there are numerous visitors to the village of Slapton, which 
is about three-quarters of a mile inland, and completely hidden 
from the coach road. The scenery, as one drives by coach along 
the coast from Dartmouth, is extremely beautiful, reminding the 
traveller of the Corniche road between Mentone and Monte Carlo, 
and it may be fairly said that naturalists in search of a holiday 
resort might do worse than spend a few days at Slapton. Those 
wishing to study minutely the natural history of this district in 
all its bearings, may well turn to the pages of Bellamy’s Natural 
History of South Devon, whicli, though publislied so far back as 
1839, is yet full of interest. Copies of the work are to be found 
at the Plymouth libraries, or can be obtained of the local second- 
hand booksellers for three or four shillings. 
Giles A. Daubeny. 
Birds’ Nests. — It seems to me that birds, when not disiurlred at nesting- 
time, resort to the same localities for their second families. This summer a pair 
of thrushes built in ivy encircling a large oak tree about six feet from the ground, 
and although I used to sit in a chair aliout three feet ofi', they got quite used to 
my presence, and did not mind feeding their young before me. If 1 had stood up 
I could with a stick easily have hit them. As soon as the brood was fledged and 
able to shift for them.selves, the same jiair of thrushes (1 believe, built in a lil.ac 
tree abiPiit four yards off their old situation, under which I walked constantly, 
and they again did not mind me in the least. In the same manner a pair of 
greenfinches built two nests one after the other in trees a tew yards apart, as 
soon as the first family was able to be left to its own devices. 
Cliff Cottage, Melhouitit, Derby. ArtiiL'K Myeks. 
