The Time Period for Nest and Egg Replacement
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HOTES THE TIME PERIOD FOR NEST AND EGG REPLACEMENT. ON May 21st, 1919, in Hampshire, I found the nest of a Nightingale (Luscinia m. megarhyncha) containing four eggs, built in a very exposed situation in a lane. At 7 a.m. the next morning it held five eggs, but later in the day these had been taken. Early in the morning of the 23rd I watched the birds building a new nest about six yards from the old one. On the 30th it contained four eggs. I left the neighbourhood the next day, so do not know if any more were laid. On May 16th, 1920, I found the nest of a Tree-Pipit (Anthus t. trivialis) at North Wooton, W. Norfolk, containing four eggs. This was unfortunately destroyed, but on the 28th a new nest had been built about three yards from the old one and contained five eggs. N. TRACY. AN AVIAN DEATH-TRAP. AT Hollingbourne House in Kent, the residence of Mr. R. Duppa de Uphaugh, there are two plate-glass windows 10 ft. high by 4 ft. broad situated each side of the main entrance to the house. At one time, about thirty years ago, the centre part of the house was open and the main drive went straight through the building, the entrance then being on the right-hand side under a large archway. This was filled up and is now a hall. There is an avenue of trees to the house. Looking at the windows it appears from reflection that the avenue continues straight through the house. This is especially so when the sun is shining on them. Evidently the reflection of the avenue continuing represents to birds a clear flight, and fatalities against the glass have been con tinually going on for the last thirty years. The "following species have been picked up and identified:— Wood-Pigeon, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Hawfinch, Nuthatch, Sparrow-Hawk, Spotted Flycatcher, Song-Thrush, Stock- Dove, Marsh-Tit, Brambling and Blackbird; but no record has been kept of the number killed. JAMES R. HALE, [Similar happenings on a small scale have of course been frequently recorded though the place described above seems to be an unusually fruitiul source of danger.—EDS.] 0 218 BRITISH BIRDS. [VOL. XVIII. UNUSUAL SITUATION OF CHAFFINCH'S NEST. Two nests that I found some years ago must have been built by hirds as eccentric in habit as the one referred to by Mr. Connell (antea, p. 109). I quote from my note-book of the time :— Chaffinch (Fringilla c. ccelebs), Raincliffe Wood, near Scar borough, May 31st, 1903. Nest containing 3 eggs in cup- shaped cavity in top of decayed birch tree, 15 feet up, both birds seen. June 2nd, 1906, also Raincliffe Wood. Nest containing 3 eggs in hollow top of broken elder tree, 5 feet up. W. GYNGELL. INCREASE OF THE WOOD-LARK IN GLOUCESTER SHIRE AND SURREY. IN his note on the breeding of the Wood-Lark (Lullula a. arborea) in the counties of Shropshire and Worcestershire, Mr. J. S. Elliott (Vol. XVIII., p. 75) mentions that he heard one singing last summer in the Cotswolds above Broad way. It may be of interest to record that a colony of these birds flourishes a very few miles to the south and south-west of this point. The locality is in Gloucestershire, but a few pairs inhabit a tract of Worcester shire surrounded by Gloucestershire. I believe this to be a very recent extension of breeding area, but only a local one, as I have been informed that the neighbourhood of Cleeve Hill has been a known locality for many years. In October, 1923, I noticed a small party, and returning to the same place in April, 1924, I found two birds singing but failed to find a nest. I revisited the place at Whitsuntide and found a nest containing four fresh eggs, and was shown another about two miles distant with five young just hatched. During April and May other nests with eggs or young had been found by keepers. The favourite feeding ground during the breeding season seems to be stony grass fields cropped close by rabbits and overgrown with low bramble bushes, but the nests I have seen or heard of were in cut-down or newly replanted woods. During the War many acres ot wood were felled and to this I think may be attributed, if not the first appearance of the Wood-Lark, at least a great increase in its numbers in the district. Of the continued increase of this species in Surrey there can be no doubt. I returned this summer after an interval of three years to a locality in that county and found several pairs breeding where I had noticed none before. G. CHARTERIS. VOL. XVIII.] NOTES. 219 LARGE CLUTCH OF EGGS OF SONG-THRUSH. ON May 14th, 1924, I found, some four miles from Perth, the nest of a Song-Thrush (Turdus ph. clarkei) containing eight eggs. The next day there was still another, and the bird was sitting. Unfortunately, I had to leave home for a fortnight just when the eggs were due to hatch. Immediately on my return I visited the nest, which contained one addled egg, and showed unmistakable signs of a large family having been successfully brought up. There were no traces of dead young birds beneath the nest, but I doubt if all eight could have been successfully reared. Nine eggs seem to be the largest number recorded for the Song-Thrush, and must be of very rare occurrence. SCONE. LATE SWIFT IN SOUTH WALES. ON November 2nd, 1924, at 2 p.m., a Swift (Apus a, apus) was observed in the middle of the city of Cardiff, Glamorgan shire, flying low down just clear of the overhead wires of the tramway system. It passed sufficiently near to see that the feathers of the right wing were damaged, which might account for the lateness of the stay, but it is difficult to imagine how food had been procured, if the injury was of such gravity that migration was prevented so long ago as August or September, the normal time of departure. A south-westerly gale was blowing at the time. CLEMENCE M. ACLAND. GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER'S METHOD OF EXCAVATING NEST-HOLE. IN the spring of 1924 I had an opportunity of watching a Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dryobates major anglicus) excavating its nesting-hole. I was able to get within about five yards of the bird. It worked inside the hole for about five minutes, then came out tail first and stopped with its claws on the rim of the nesting-hole, then put its beak inside, drew it out again full of chips and threw them over its shoulder ; it put its head in nine or ten times and brought out a beak- full of chips each time. It then went back into the hole and worked for another five minutes, then backed out again and repeated its previous performance. N. TRACY. GOLDEN EAGLE IN BERKSHIRE. AN Eagle was reported to have been seen on several occasions on the Downs south-west of Wantage during the last week 220 BRITISH BIRDS. [VOL. xvm. of July 1924, and on July 30th it was seen about 10.30 a.m. by Mr. A. Beesly and his keeper soaring over some rough ground, covered with long grass, to the south of Pinal Wood between Letcombe Basset and Fawley. Later in the day the bird settled in the wood and was shot by the keeper, while sitting on a tree. It proved to be a Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetus) and not, as might have been expected, an immature Sea-Eagle. Mr. Beesly gives the span of the expanded wings as 6 ft. 6 in. It is not a dark bird, but has a number of light coloured feathers on the mantle and shows no white on the rectrices. Mr. Beesly had it set up and subsequently presented it to the Reading Museum. It is perhaps worth mention in this connexion that a " Golden Eagle " is said to have been killed at Bala, North Wales, about the end of November 1923 {cf. Field, 31st January, 1924, p. 141), and Mr. Auden states that one of a pair turned down on an island off the coast of Pembrokeshire still survives. F, C. R. JOURDAIN. PROLONGED SITTING OF SPARROW-HAWK. ON May 25th, 1924, I found the nest of a Sparrow-Hawk (Accipiter n. nisus) ready for eggs near Penzance. On June 7th it contained four fresh eggs of which I took two. On July 26th the bird was still sitting on the two eggs, which were evidently addled. The last date I found her sitting was August 8th. Taking the incubation period at thirty-five days the last egg should have hatched not later than July nth, so that the bird continued to sit for an extra twenty-eight days at least. The only other record I am aware of which relates to the length of time a Sparrow-Hawk will sit on a clutch of infertile eggs is that of Mr. J. H. Owen in British Birds (XII., p. 75), where he says that a bird " after eating two (eggs) on the thirty-eighth day from the first egg, deserted the nest." The entire period in my nest, from the laying of the last egg, was sixty-three days. G. H. HARVEY. GOLDENEYES IN LANCASHIRE IN SUMMER. IN connection with Captain Boyd's note (antea, p. 194), on Goldeneyes (Bucephala c. clangula) in Cheshire throughout the sximmer of 1924, it may be of interest to record that, on June 13th, a drake in immature plumage was present on a reservoir near Bolton-le-Moors in south Lancashire.