Shag, just beginning to moult old worn feathers, which was picked up in a very thin condition in a meadow near Banbury about the 1st of the month.
25th.— Went to Kingham to see the three Marsh Warbler's nests found by Mr. Fowler. A photograph of one of these nests (the one in which the Cuckoo's egg was afterwards found, vide 'Zoologist,' 1898, p. 356) is here reproduced.
This example exhibits very well the peculiar characteristic (always more or less developed, so far as I know) of the Marsh Warbler's nest. The nest has the appearance of being hung on its supporting stems by basket-like handles, somewhat similar to those of a common garden scuttle-basket. This nest is supported by three stems of meadow-sweet, two of them close together. The walls of the nest are formed of dry grass, with a very little moss and some wool. The lining consists of a fair amount of horsehair, and a very little wool is to be seen, as well as a patch of the latter as
