139 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Summer Migrants. — First appearances near Southsea, Hants: Wheatear, 
March 19; Swallow, March 23; Cuckoo, April 16; Nightingale, April 13; 
Wryneck, April 13 ; Nightjar, May 15. For the last six years I have had ample 
opportunity of observing the habits of nightingales, and can confidently assert 
that they utter a harsh croak on their arrival when alarmed, and this before 
commencing nesting duties. J. E. H. Kelso. 
Double Birds’ Nests. — One of the most common appropriations of the 
work of other birds is that of house-sparrows taking possession of house-martins’ 
nests just before completed. Out of six nests built round my house this season five 
are occupied by sparrows, in which they build, or line with their own materials, 
thus making double nests. This circumstance was well known to Gilbert White 
over a century ago, and still it is followed out on exactly the same lines. In 
April a pair of swallows built a nest under an archway and then disappeared. 
1 rather suspect they perished in the terribly cold weather for lack of insect life in 
the air, at any rate they have not been about the premises since. A wren has 
just finished off the nest by putting a beautiful canopy on top. I say a wren 
liecause it was a male bird, by his merry song while about the business. I have 
seen a wren’s nest built on a whitethroat’s nest after the same fashion, thus 
forming a double nest. Two pairs of kestrels near here have taken possession of 
magpies’ nests this season, after being built up, and it is a common occurrence 
for stock-doves and ring-doves to appropriate old magpies’ nests. Last year a 
pair of partridges shared the same nest while laying with two hens near a farm- 
house, but the disturbance proved too much for the partridges. 
Astwood Bank, Worcestershire. James Hiam. 
Great Northern Diver (p. 78). — In response to Mr. Aplin’s remarks, I 
have written to my friend who several years ago assured me he had taken the eggs 
of this bird in the North of Scotland. He has left this neighbourhood for some 
time, and during his many changes of residence the eggs have disappeared. His 
answers to my enquiries are not conclusive, and I must abandon a belief enter- 
tained for years. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
G. S. — Both are Lepidium campestre. Please read Rule i. 
E. M. P. — The specimens were not determinable. 
C. G. — Yes, the two plants are the same, but Impatiens Roylei is the correct 
name, as there is another and earlier /. glandulifera. It seems to have been 
introduced about 1840. 
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