[From Bird-Life in the Isle of Man]

ROBIN

It seems absurd to write about the robin, everyone knows it, everyone loves it. When the place is so silent in the dismal autumn days, it is the robin that saves the situation; for even in July and August it may be heard. On July 15th, one year, I heard a bird at 9.45 p.m. singing finely in a tree in the Palace Grounds in Douglas. On another occasion, on January ith, a bird had distinct notes like those of a willow-warbler. About the same time I watched a bird singing near Spring Valley which had a deep plack band at the bottom of the red breast which ran all round and gave a most peculiar effect. The various ways of courting are well worth watching. In December, I have seen, on a very mild, still day, a female leading on the male, which was very puffed out; then they both stayed quite still, to see what the other would do, and finally decided to feed for a bit. Later in February I watched two males vying with each other for the smiles of a female which flitted about unconcernedly while they cocked their tails and spread them out and puffed out their very red breasts. Early in March, in Glen Helen, I watched some very coy courting. The male sang, she came towards him, then retreated ; he cocked up his tail and walked sideways to shew himself off — almost pirouetting ; then they went and fed on some nearby rocks and took no notice of each other. Late in June, I have seen a pair in my garden, rubbing bills and walking round each other, the male cocking his tail at an absurd angle; then they went to the far ends of the lawn away from each other, then slowly walked back. Now what was this last performance? Was it just sheer exuberance of spirits and affection ; why not? The birds take up some quaint nesting sites. I saw one in a broken flower-pot which was on its side, in Laxey Glen; and, in the same place a nest inside a dirty old rusty biscuit tin, a lovely nest of leaves and moss. But the best I have seen was late in May one year; it was built in Mr. Maddrell's study in the Castletown Vicarage, on some books which were lying flat on the top shelf of a bookcase ; the nest was big and well built, and five eggs were laid, and the windows were always kept open for them to come in and out. While five is a usual clutch Six eggs are not uncommon. I found one nest with six on the railway bank near Greeba, very close to the track ; but once I had seven at Ballacraine, German in a hole in a grassy hedge by the road. And you may begin to look for nests from mid-March onwards And the robin also indulges in that trick of trying to draw you away from the nest by feigning lameness it is so pathetically funny. The young go through various stages of early plumage, black with yellow gapes, cream and brown-black ; speckled and streaked as they are ready to venture forth on their own. | have watched mother on a patch feeding a well- grown youngster from bill to bill. One day father was carrying bread-crumbs from my bird-table to a nest, and the young were very young. I wondered whether they suffered badly from indigestion! And once, after a hard day's work, I saw the old couple return, to the stream at Garwick and bathe, and what splashing went on and how they loved every moment of it. And how I love them in the winter months when they come in a confiding manner to get their morning crumbs and will actually be waiting for you if you are late. Don't you love when the animal trusts the human, and could you break that trust ?

HEDGE-SPARROW

Occasionally I have seen this bird collected in numbers but, as a rule, it is moving about quietly in or about a hedge or in a garden, making no noise and doing no harm. The song is like the bird, it is very inconspicuous. I have notes of the song on January 11th and 20th: of a bird singing hard to his mate on February 20th; in July and August ; and September in good form, and in mid-November trying its notes over. Once in March, on the Ballanard Road, Douglas, I came on two birds singing against each other and very sweetly ; one bird specially was putting every ounce of himself into it, head and body fairly quivering. Late in November I found a solitary bird in Laxey Glen piping away and squatting straddle-legged on two twigs. Down Garwick Glen, one day, when there seemed to be a crowd of fresh arrivals — and this was late in April — I watched a male very busy fanning his tail and displaying for his mate. I have seen birds hurrying backwards and forwards in a furious hurry with large bits of grass to the nest, which is, as a rule, not high up. I remember one with four eggs in the centre of a gooseberry bush, six inches off the ground, of twigs and moss, lined with hair and wool; and one on the Calf, low down in a bramble bush ; and one in a swamp near Union Mills in a "Sally" bush, surrounded by reeds, with eggs. And such eggs! the blue beauty of them is beyond compare. And then you may see the young grey-coloured ; and then blackish with very golden gapes. These last mentioned were hatched out in the centre of some pampas grass and eighteen inches from the ground. With the end of the breeding season the bird just quietly goes back to his search for food, and you may see him here and there in your garden or by the roadside, always quiet, always secretive.

WREN

There is little to write about this little bird. It seems to me that it spends a considerable amount of its time in singing and building nests. In the former pursuit it has a tremendous voice for its wee size, It sings through its courting, while she ticks, and then they both tick and he fusses, like most little people! Then he has been seen by me to perch on the tops of houses near by and dash about, and even visit a last year's "cock nest" and out again. For, in this respect, the wren reminds me of someone who must have something to do; so he promptly dashes off to start building a nest and puts into it that same tremendous energy as into the song. Once I saw a pair with the male with his tail cocked in a most ridiculous way, going round each other in circles; and then — this I may say was March 13th — they went off, got their mouths full of building stuff and started working at a nearly complete nest. Now I am sure that this was only a cock nest. Later, in April, I watched a pair in my garden building a nest in a shrub largely using old straws from some manure in a bed. All sorts of material are used; you may lind nests made of moss, or leaves, or bracken. I have seen bits of royal fern, and pieces of a syringa bush, used. But it is all such amazing energy. In the middle of July I saw a female feeding young, i, a nest in some heather near the sea, at a tremendous pace — and the young people did clamour in between meals; and yet, every time she approached the nest, she invariably halted on a bramble about half way — I wonder why? Was it just caution, instinct of danger? The male did very little work on this occasion; but once at the end of May I watched (le male feeding the female and young with insects nearly as big as himself, which fairly made him stagger. On August 7th I saw a bird with a mouthful of food; this was very late. Once on June 30th, Cregeen and I found a family of seven being kept together by mother and father in a lane on Clay Head ; it was a trying job. I have met these birds in large numbers together during the winter, no doubt on migration. Only quite recently my bird friends and I have noticed the sudden increase of wrens all over the place. They have come in from somewhere for some reason, and it is equally obvious that they can find food here, the all important factor in life. Which reminds me that I have seen a bird in Kirby walking up a tree and examining the berries just like a tree-creeper; indeed I thought it was the latter for a moment. And this food does not always agree. I had a dead bird in the garden which looked very healthy ; I asked Doctor Dorothy Pantin to examine it, and she told me that it had died from the skin of a big currant which it could not digest; poor thing, that must have been largely sheer greed.

DIPPER

I have seen the Dipper in Switzerland and France ; I have found it nesting in Belgium, Italy and Norway ; and in all these countries including England I have seen lots of these birds whenever I have looked for them; but in this Island I have found it the most elusive bird and most difficult to come upon, although I am sure that it is reasonably common. I have seen the bird (both male and female) on the stream up West Baldwin, also at the top end of the Sulby under Pen-y-pot; and, even in very cold weather, on a little stream near Santon, and close to the road, I have found a nest close to the waterslide by Tromode Mill. But I did at last have a very great treat at West Baldwin, where G. Collister of the Post Office showed me a nest by the bridge, in the bank on the north side, made of grass and brownish moss, with a very clever entrance at the side underneath, which I stayed and watched and was rewarded by seeing a bird come upstream, bob on a stone and fly into the nest. In all my frequent visits to that nest I could never make quite sure whether both birds took their turn on. Coward says he believes they do. I saw them both come upstream together, with their shrill call, but could never stay long enough, It was March 27th when I first visited ; on April 17th the male, armed with a large worm in its mouth, delivered the goods and flew off. I cannot say if his mate was being fed, or recently hatched birds as well. But on the 24th both birds came upstream and brought worms to their young which I could hear calling in the nest; the female stayed and the male was off quickly, and very soon back with another worm. By this time the nest was getting very ragged — I only wish I could have seen the family being fed outside, but that was not to be.

SWALLOW

My records about the Swallow are very largely early arrivals and late departures. My earliest date of arrival is April 8th — that was in '26: the next is the oth. One year, on the 22nd, there were great numbers passing near Douglas. On May 2nd, near Sulby Bridge, a sparrow-hawk dived at a solitary bird ; like a flash three birds were on that hawk and mobbed him out of sight, screaming loudly all the time. On the other hand, late in July, I have seen a lone bird go for a sparrow-hawk which really took no notice. I suppose the swallow thought that her young were in danger. On May 23rd I have seen a nest with five eggs on a beam in a barn. On the 24th the male bird was singing a sweet little song on the top of a roof near the nest on a cross-beam under the eaves, whilst his mate was sitting tight. On June goth, Guy and I found a nest with six eggs in a shed at Ballaterson, Ballaugh. On June 13th, one year, at Glencrutchery, I found a nest with four eggs and lined with feathers in an out-house ; on the 1st of August I found the nest in use again with three eggs; on the 17th I found the young just hatched and the old birds very busy carrying food. During the feeding the birds care very little for human beings. There was a nest with young in Castle Rushen late in June ; visitors were passing constantly and stopping near the nest, which was on a beam just above them ; I never saw the old birds hesitate to carry on. Early in July I saw a row of young birds on the roof of an inn near Castletown being fed in turn by mother, a sweet sight. But, as late as August 30th, I have watched parents carrying food to the nest against a beam (rather like a martin's) where there were still three large youngsters almost feathered; although I have seen this very much later in England. No wonder that some of the birds are migrating so late or shall I say a few, although many begin to gather in August. It was in the middle of August in '29 that Guy and I saw, near Baldrine, a bird that was practic- ally white. My latest date is November 15th, when I saw a bird near Kentraugh; but I have two very interesting records for the 11th (Armistice Day). Early that morning a constable on duty found a bird in the last stages of exhaustion in a Douglas street ; he brought it to the Police Station and later I found it recovered and let it go again, when it flew off quite happily. On another occasion the Armistice Service was being held at the Douglas Cenotaph, and, as the 11a.m. bomb went off and we stood rigidly to attention, I saw a bird come flying out of the Villa Marina garden, where, no doubt, it had been sheltering.

HOUSE-MARTIN

Like the swallow, the Martin is a regular nester in the Island, but in no great numbers, although, as it nests along and on the cliffs, in some of which places the nests are almost inaccessible and out of sight, it is hard to ascertain if it increases or not. I think that it varies from year to year. At Port Soderick, where it is a regular cliff nester and carries on, regardless of scores of. visitors below the nest, the numbers vary enormously. The best year was '25, when I counted 17 nests and there were others. In '32 there were five at most. Here the birds are feeding young fairly late. I have seen birds at it on September tith. A few pairs nest every. year against the Castletown Police Station, and I have seen young being fed on September roth. There were several nests for a few years on Fort Island Hotel, but this suddenly came to an end I know not why. Nests may be seen everywhere on Loch Promenade Douglas, and the old birds I have seen feeding young all through the season. At 4.20 p.m. on April 16th, '30, I saw a bird passing with two swallows and three sand- martins ; this is my earliest arrival date by ten days. Twice I have seen birds on the 26th. One year, on October 21st, Cregeen and I saw six birds drinking from a pool along Marina Drive and then passing on south, but this is my latest date of departure.

SAND-MARTIN

The history of this Martin nesting in the Island seems to be one of fighting against fate; I refer specially to the coast-line from, say, Jurby Head to Orrisdale, for, no sooner has a bird got a nesting place well defined for next year, after having happily used it for the current year, than he finds, on arrival from the south, that he hardly knows the coast-line as it was, as the winter storms have claimed another big chunk of coast and his last year's territory is no more. Still, it makes no difference to them, and each year fair numbers burrow into those sandy cliffs and make their nests. Glen Mooar and the Dog Mills are used regularly by a limited number ; at the latter place I have watched birds feeding young very busily on July 23rd. There was a nesting place near St. John's; one year I noted ten nests, one was close to the entrance with five eggs laid on large white hen feathers; next year it was hardly used. I noted one of a little grass with five eggs; but I fear that some of the youths had amused themselves by stop- ping up the holes, so that was deserted next year. These birds love looking for insects on pools. I watched some once hawking on Bishop's Dub and at times cutting right through the water. My earliest recorded date of arrival is March 31st; I saw one at 7.30 a.m. at Garwick, and, in the afternoon, one at Derbyhaven. Rex and I used to find them in the first few days of April flying over and round the pool of water along the Ballanard Road, near Douglas. They are generally off pretty early, my latest date being September 28th, when I saw two between Michael and Peel.

SWIFT

This species, though not in great numbers in the Island and apparently local in its nesting, appears to increase as the years roll on. It is one of our later arrivals. My earliest date is May 4th, near Derby- haven, and I also heard and saw one on the gth at Castletown : but, as a rule, I have not seen birds until later in the month. The bird is in fair numbers in Douglas, and round the big buildings about the Mental Hospital, Braddan, reaching as far as the Union Mills Laundry, where I have found nests. They may be found in Derby Road, Douglas, where they are, I fancy, increasing. I have seen a nest jammed against the top of a water-spout ; indeed, they love to jam themselves on to ledges under eaves, close together ; the nests themselves being usually made of grass and straw glued together with some sticky secretion from the bird itself. I found a solitary nest on a beam in the corner of one of the stands of the Bellewue Kacecourse ; the owners of the nest apparently made no objection to racing, nor to their family being reared in the midst of it. Early in August, when most of the nesting duties are over, the birds begin to collect, and I have seen them in fairly large numbers wheeling, planing and screaming over Douglas, some showing a marked predilection for the neighbourhood in the Palace in the evenings. Once in this month I found a dead young bird, with pretty pink feet. Dr. Dorothy Pantin kindly dissected it for me, and showed the tremendous chest muscles, the wonderful long wind-pipe and big gullet. The bird wants all this development for its tremendous speed and manner of living, for it never seems to rest. To see a crowd of them quartering Port-e-Chee Meadow on a wet stormy day is a thing of speed never to be for gotten. And they go very soon. At seven on the morning of September 13th, one year, a young bird flew into my wife's bedroom, and we had no end of a job to get it out again. I love to watch their amazing aerial performances, and am always sorry when, once more, they have to go and seek their food else where.

NIGHTJAR

A bird of the late eventide, moving like a ghost in ils wavering flight, making its presence known by its continuous "churring'' or "trilling"', a noise, of may I call it a vibration, all of its own, continuing far into the night. I timed one call, it was forty seconds, but I do not think that that bird was in good form. It comes and goes in the same quiet manner as its living. I have seen it in Laxey Glen as early as May 12th, making that "quik quik" sound which rather reminds me of a mistle-thrush. I have heard a bird round my house at Garwick on several occasions in the early hours making that sound like "co-ie"; but I have come across the bird in the flesh more in Laxey Glen and Glen Roy than anywhere else with its trilling, its calls, and that curious wing cracking, like someone treading on a stick; until one year when H. M. Rogers, a very keen and observant bird-man, took me, in the middle of June, to a rather bare, stony place on the Ayres which we approached with great caution, and were lucky enough to see the female on her two eggs. Then she came off and shambled along the ground, doing all sorts of funny shuffling movements with wing and body. Wonderful how the colour of the eggs coincides with that sort of ground. On leaving we put up the male, or presumably the male, which gave us an excellent view of himself. A week later I had another look, the female was on, and the male was not far off, and he was so annoyed at being disturbed that he promptly pursued a meadow-pipit which was looking on quite innocently. On a certain 4th of September, Cregeen and I found a mature male (from its markings) on a wall above Garwick Bay, lying quietly there on its way south; it was a lovely view of a beautifully-marked bird, and it was only when we got almost up to it that it flew. Twice on White Bridge Hill I have had birds near my car late in the evening, once in late August, once on September 12th; and no doubt they were wending their way southwards, following the food-supply.

CUCKOO

My own personal record of the earliest arrival of the cuckoo is April 21st, when I saw one moving about in a spinney by Bishopscourt in a tired manner, and never opened its mouth; also in others on 22nd, 23rd, 24th — all very close. In '31 Cregeen heard and saw a bird on the 18th at Laxey Glen, always a good place for early arrivals. I have seen or heard it (or both) in so many places: Crosby, Eary-dam, Greeba, St. Jude's, Port Grenaugh, Ballaugh Curraghs specially, but most specially Garwick and Baldrine, where they are in numbers every year, and where I have watched them frequently, but have never found a nest which they have used ; and they are so well worth observing. Perhaps their putting an egg in a nest in the Island may yet be a treat in store! I should like to so much, for I have seen them using the nests of two reed-warblers (one nest had not got any other egg yet) in Gloucestershire ; the nest of the tree-pipit in Cumberland; and that of the redstart in Holland, where the cuckoo had actually to go through a hole made for a stove-pipe into a hut where the nest with six eggs was on a table. But A. E. Collister once look me to a grass field at Ballahowin, Santon, where there was a meadow-pipit's nest entirely filled with a vast young cuckoo, possibly a week or eight days old, some iron-grey feathers showing on the quills, and snapping viciously at a finger put near it, with the golden gape very wide open. Part of the egg-shell was near, of the pied wagtail kind, also the remains of one meadow-pipit's egg; the young had been cracked out, I suppose. The foster-mother was calling at the time we were near. I regret that I was not able to go again and watch feeding, etc., but I never had the time. Once, on July 29th, I watched a young bird near Crosby, which was sitting on a wall close to a mistle-thrush. And again, on August 5th, I saw two cuckoos, one a very small bird, sitting side by side on the telrgraph wires on the Laxey road. Those wires, or wires of some nature, seem to be afavourite perching place. At Garwick I watched a bird which, while "cuckooing" , bowed to and fro, with his throat working, head down, helping the balance at the sides and tail working up and down; a humorous sight. Again at Garwick 1 have seen a bird on a wire, just rocking silently. One year on May 28th, on the Garwick Brows, I saw three birds about, a male and two females; one was pursued by by two meadow-pipits, or shall I say attended? I know not which. One perched on a stone wall, and a meadow-pipit came and picked at it all over, a quaint sight ; then a male and female got together after the male had "cuckooed" a bit, and they went off into the dusk. On the 31st there were three here again ; one female chuckled horribly ; one male got wandering ing around and was chased by a female yellow-hammer. ; the male perched on a post and worked its tail like a blackbird, and a meadow-pipit came to see it ; but no cleaning up business. And then it got too wet to stay. Another evening I was on the road about Baldrine when a pair whizzed past me with such a rush that it fairly frightened some yellow-hammers near by; and up and down the road they dashed, such a "cuckooing "', and "gobbling" and "bubbling" ; and the female dived in here and out there along a low hedge as if looking for a nest, and came away making very angry noises. And then I could see no more. But that meadow-pipit business is weird; just as if the bird was told off to be the cuckoo's orderly. I have seen a cuckoo mobbed by mistle-thrushes and a lot of such birds fairly soon after its arrival ; but this other matter beats me. Can it be a kind of mesmerism? Ido not pretend to understand, but it is mighty interesting. Another favourite place is Ballaugh Curraghs. I have seen a male there hovering for a while like a kestrel. I watched a female coming from a hedge as if from a nest, and rising and twisting just like a snipe. And what strange noises the birds make at times! But the everlasting "cuckoo" is an amazing effort. One your I kept notes of a bird in Willaston, near Douglas.It kept on and on right up to June 26th, though the notes were getting a bit broken towards the end. I saw a bird at Garwick on July 20th, and it made one slight hoarse noise like "co-ie"". It probably deserved lo be hoarse. Once, on September 9th, F. G. Comish and I saw a bird on the wires near Ballabeg, Lonan, und two near Bride later; and that is my latest date.

LONG-EARED OWL

I think that I may safely call this species the owl of the Island. It is almost common, and may be found in all suitable wooded localities, although the bird will at times leave a spot where it has been known for years. I can only attribute this to scarcity of flood, I do not think that it is persecution. Garwick Glen is one place which I think of at once. There have been times when my wife and I have often heard birds at various hours of the night; and then there is not a sound for a long period. One night, early in November, two birds called their "oo-oo-oo-oo"' one against the other for a long time, a regular vocal contest, Another night, one bird was very noisy, so much so that it disturbed a bantam cock which crowed defiantly at it. Once, in the middle of August, we listened to a bird which sounded at times almost like a lamb, Towards the end of the same month, at 6.15 a.m., I watched a bird near the Dhoon, which was being mobbed by two kestrels; it drove them off somehow and disappeared towards the sea. Once, I had a bird brought to me which had been found dead in the yard at the back of the Adelphi Hotel in Douglas. From its condition it must have hit the telegraph wires frightfully hard. Once, late in March, at 7.30 p.m., I watched a pair in the moonlight which were perched on some fir-trees in the the Marina Gardens; the male was hooting well, might I say, baying the moon. But for numbers nothing can beat a small spinney of young firs in Santon parish. Once, in November, H. T. Duesbery, H. M. Rogers and I came on eleven here ; they were comatose after a huge meal, judging from the remains of mice and small birds lying about under the trees. Perhaps quite as interesting was a party of six in February. Four were perched in different trees, two were cuddling close together. Guy and I thought that it was a small wedding party, as these two looked so coy. I have found several nests here, always in old magpies' nests. But for observation and nesting in various stages, my wife, the boys and I have had a wonderful time at Ballagawne, Rushen. We have seen two pairs keeping very close together. We had one nest several years running, and had some most interesting times. One was a very early nest ; it was, as they always were here, in an old magpie ear : of vast size and well domed, and some eetwenty-five feet up a big fir-tree. On March 8th there were five eggs and there was another by the 15th. The only lining to a very shallow cup was a few feathers. a few weeks later there were three young perched by the nest; one was in a thorn-bush. I do not know how it got there, as, although it shewed a vast wing stretch it could not fly properly. We put it down to being about four to five weeks : may be less. It stared solemnly at us, with ear tufts erect and great golden eyes; it was well covered with grey downy feathers. Guy caught it and was rewarded with a real good peck which drew blood. Then mother took a hand: she flew down from the nest and her other young, with huge eyes flashing and feathers and wings all puffed out, and fairly went for us all, so we decided to beat a retreat, to leave her to it. Once, again, we found three youngsters on low trees, two side by side and looking so wise. The other was on a branch of a small apple-tree, and Rex and I started slowly to walk round it, and that bird very nearly turned its head completely round ; it looked so comical. In Glen Whillyn, early in April, I was able, with the great assistance of E. Brindle, to examine a nest (old magpie) up a fir-tree, which had some coarse grass as lining; besides two eggs, there were two young, just hatched, blind, and covered with snow white down. A few days later all four were hatched out, and, while three were still silent, one was much larger and definitely grey- coloured. With the help of Jackie Teare and E. Brindle, I have examined a good many nests in the Ballaugh Curraghs which have generally been in the old nests of sparrow-hawk or hooded crow, and some- limes in amazingly wet places. Possibly the most interesting nest which I have seen was at Close Hoppen, St, Jude's; it was in an old magpie's nest in a holly- bush, only four feet from the top of the hedge. The bird came off and there were two young birds, a study in grey-brown and white. In one nest which I had a look at there were eight dead mice ; which reminds me that on one occasion I was given a number of black pellets which had been picked up in Glencrutchery Wood under a tree frequented by owls. I got Doctor Dorothy Pantin to look at them, and she made out the remains to be probably mice-hairs, some neatly two inches long; there were no other remains detectable, except some very long hairs which looked almost like horsehairs.

SHORT-EARED OWL

There are possibly a fair number of birds of this species which either visit the Island on migration or, in lesser numbers, stay to breed. I have seen a bird here and there in practically every winter month ; twice I have seen dead birds, once in November, once in January, and both came from the vicinity of South Barrule. By the way, what a wonderful thing is the operculum or ear cavity. One year on November 4th, I had a most interesting experience on the east side of Langness. There was a stiff breeze blowing from south-west. Suddenly I flashed a short ear, which was resting in the grass ; it rose, sort of hovered and then flew off with the wind behind it, in a heavy, slow way, when a raven arrived at the moment and chased it, trying to strike or worry it. Away they went out to sea, first high and then very low until I lost them in the misty scud; the final issue I know not. Not long ago, E. Brindle and I found a pair about the latter part of March in Ballaugh Curraghs, and they stayed until the beginning of April, and then must have gone. Early in June, Guy and I flashed one out of a marshy place near Ballacraine, German; the bird appeared to be very annoying to the small birds. We hoped that there might have been a nest; anyhow, we did not find it. It was also in June that, at 4.30 a.m., I watched a bird which wavered near me in circles by the Ballaugh road and dropped into the Curraghs. Jim Vincent, the well-known Warden of the Broadland Sanctuaries, has told me how he came over many years ago to the Island and found a nest with eggs in the Curraghs for a gentleman. And they will surely be found again, even if I never have the luck.

BARN-OWL

Some ten years ago, when we were staying in Derbyhaven, early on the morning of October 9th, about 2.30 a.m. I most distinctly heard a pair for some time close round the house. Mr. Willie Kissack said that he had seen birds about at that time. But I did not actually see one in the flesh in the Island until over eight years after, when F. G. Corris sent me in the body of a very fine old male which had been found drowned in a water-butt at a farm near Ballasalla ; there was a dead mouse in the water as well the pursuit of which must have been the cause of death And then, curiously enough, sixteen days later I was wandering about in Glen Helen with E. Brindle and we got a splendid view of a pair which flew slowyl through the trees on the other side of the Glen a full view. I fancy that they must have been scared out of a shelter by the raucous barks of two ver excited ravens which were rampaging about. About a year later, when on the Peel road, my wife and I got a very fine view of a bird which flew from Greeba direction and across the road, heading south. I found a nest at a farm near Douglas recently.