CURIOUS NESTS AND NESTING SITES OBSERVED
NEAR THETFORD.
By W.G. Clarke.
The nidification of our English-breeding birds must always have an especial interest to ornithologists, an interest which is accentuated by the fact that the abnormal is never wanting. Almost all the charm of searching for the domiciles of our feathered friends would be lost, if it were not for the constant element of uncertainty as to where the nests will be placed, and the consequent delight at finding them in some unique position. This variability is far less marked in nests than in nesting sites, therefore my notes upon curious nests are very brief.
A nest which was in my possession until quite recently was found in a hawthorn hedge at Lakenheath, Suffolk. A Wren had built its nest about three feet from the ground, and upon the dome of this a Linnet had also built, the two nests being firmly interwoven. Both birds were sitting upon their eggs at the same time, and safely reared their respective broods. Another twin-nest even more remarkable was found this year in the hamlet of Snarehill, Thetford. The nest of a Blackbird was situated in a wild apple tree adjacent to a convenient crotch. A Chaffinch thought this crotch a desirable site for a nest, and there built it, weaving its side into the loose bents surrounding the Blackbird's nest. Records of communistic nests are not very abundant, but instances occur yearly in this locality of joint nests of the Common and Red-legged Partridge.
In the last week of May in this year, a friend of mine found eggs of the Pheasant and Red-legged Partridge in the same nest, a few miles from Thetford. Mr. F. Norgate found a nest on Santon Warren which contained eight Teal's, one Duck's, and several Pheasant's eggs. A nest of the Song Thrush which I saw at Santon Downham in May, 1893, contained grass in the interior three inches in height, which seemed to have sprung from grass
