OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE IX 1884. 
215 
Partridge (. Perdix cinerea). —I am informed tliat partridges 
have been very abundant during tbe season of 1884. The follow¬ 
ing anecdote has been sent to me by Mr. H. George Fordham, of 
Odsey Grange:—About the end of May, 1883, a shepherd in the 
employ of Mr. Richard Bowman, of Cold Harbour, on the borders 
of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, found a hedgehog apparently 
surfeited with food, about eight or ten yards from the rifled nest of 
a partridge. It appeared that the hedgehog had killed the old bird 
on its nest and eaten both bird and eggs. That such was actually 
the case a subsequent examination proved most conclusively. The 
shepherd carried the hedgehog to his hut, where it was shown to 
Mr. Bowman. It was then killed and opened, and the fresh feathers 
of a partridge found within it. 
Heron (. Ardea cinerea).— Mr. A. J. Copeland informs me that 
when hunting on the 3rd of March, he noticed four herons rising 
from a small pond in Bishop’s Wood, Moor Park. Herons have 
been repeatedly reported by Lord Ebury, but always recorded as 
frequenting the ornamental water in the upper grounds. 
Coot ( Fulica atra). —Mr. Henry Lewis reports that a coot, by no 
means a common bird in Hertfordshire, was taken near St. Albans 
in November. 
Ringed Plover ( JEgialitis hiaticula ).!—I am indebted to Mr. 
Henry Lewis for information respecting a ringed plover that was 
killed, in September last, by flying against telegraph wires, close 
to Park-street Railway Station. Mr. Percy F. Fordham reports 
that a large flight of these plovers was observed near Royston, on 
the 28 th of October. 
Dusky Grebe ( Podiceps cornutus). —Miss W. Seebohm kindly 
informs me that a dusky grebe in good plumage was shot by Mr. 
Flitton, of Radwell, near Hitchin, and is now in the possession of 
Mr. Latchmore. The dusky grebe has only been reported on two 
previous occasions. 
Dabchick ( Podiceps minor). —In my last annual report it was my 
duty to record the fact that three dabchicks had been found dead in 
the river Beane, choked by attempting to swallow bullheads. On 
the 4th of February last Mr. N. Thrale was good enough to send 
me a specimen killed precisely in the same manner, and nearly in 
the same place. The bullhead still remained half-swallowed in its 
mouth. It is at present preserved in Dr. Brett’s museum. Mr. 
Thrale informs me that these catastrophes only occur during un¬ 
settled weather, when the water is thick. He adds that bullheads 
are very plentiful in the Beane, and that he found no less than six 
of these ungainly-looking fishes in the stomach of a heron that had 
been killed on the stream. My friend Mr. Henry Manser, of 
Hoddesdon, has sent to me the following interesting note respecting 
the nesting of dabchicks :—“ Last summer a pair of dabchicks made 
a nest of weeds, etc., floating it on the water near the island in our 
lake, and mooring it to the branch of a tree that hung down into 
the water. A strong wind detached the nest, and drove it (eggs and 
all) into the centre of the lake, where weeds on the surface pre- 
