Retrospective Criticism. 113 



ing Ornithologia is what I ought naturally to expect. The value of such a 

 work cannot immediately be known ; but I feel assured, that the more it is 

 examined, the more will its statements be found to correspond with actual 

 facts in natural history. I shall neviMtheless feel grateful to every one 

 who will take the trouble to look into it ; and should he find any error 

 in it, none will be more ready to acknowledge and to correct it than 

 myself. 



Aware of the necessity of being careful in a selection of facts in natural 

 history, I am persuaded that no one can accuse me justly of hastily reject- 

 ing or of heedlessly adopting whatever may be presented to my notice ; 

 but as the evidence of my own senses is to me the best of all evidence, I 

 have, as it became me to do, laid no inconsiderable stress upon that in the 

 composition of my work, and hence, sometimes, my observations are very 

 different from those made by persons who have preceded me in the same 

 path. — James Jennings. London^ Nov. 13. 1828. 



Birds foi'saking their Nests. — Sir, in the Magazine of Natural History, 

 (Vol. I. p. ^96), 1 see another criticism about birds forsaking their nests. I 

 will now try to set your correspondents right, by my own frequent ob- 

 servations. The redbreast, wren, blackbird, song-thrush, missel-thrush, and, 

 I believe, almost every other bird, will forsake their first nest for the season, 

 if frightened out of it once or twice, and will immediately begin to build 

 another ; but they will not forsake their nest while laying, handle the eggs 

 as much as you please, or change them one for the other; or even if you take 

 one out every day, the same hen will still return and lay in the empty nest. 

 I have often tried all those sorts of experiments. As for a bird forsaking a 

 nest through touching the eggs, I do not believe any such thing; it is the 

 fright in driving them out that makes them forsake, and they never return 

 to it at all : whenever they do return at all, they do not forsake. A red- 

 breast will sit on any egg substituted for its own, even a blackbird or 

 thrush's, and will breed up the young ones ; a hedge-sparrow will do the 

 same, and most probably any soft-billed bird. Later in the season, after a 

 bird has made one or two nests, it will not forsake its nest when sitting, drive 

 it out as often as you please ; some will even suffer themselves to be taken 

 out and put back again without leaving the nest. As for Mr. Anderson's 

 nightingales, 1 saw the redbreast sitting on the eggs, and also saw the young 

 nightingales after they had left the nest, and saw the redbreasts feeding 

 them. They continued about the garden till the autumn. I have no doubt 

 but nightingales might be made to frequent any place, where there was a 

 good cover of underwood for them, and plenty of insects, if hatched under 

 any of the tribe to which they are most nearly related. I think a redstart 

 would prove the best parent. I am. Sir, &c. — R. Sweet. Pomona Place, 

 King^s Road, near Fulham, Nov. 28. 1828. 



Birds singing while sitting on their eggs. — In the review of Mr. Jennings's 

 Ornithologiay your reviewer seems disposed to doubt the fact of birds sing- 

 ing while sitting on their nest. I certainly have never heard a thrush 

 sing when sitting, perhaps, for want of attending to it, but have very fre- 

 quently heard and seen the male blackcap sing while sitting on the eggs, 

 and have found its nest by it more than once ; the male of this species sits 

 nearly as much as the female. — Id. 



Food of the Lapiving. — ^Your Magazine (Vol. 1. p. 496.) contains an inter- 

 esting communication from M. respecting the food of the Lapiving, in 

 which, from an inspection of the gizzard, &c., when opened, he reasonably 

 questioned the truth of the commonly received opinion of their feeding 

 upon slugs. Should there still remain any doubt upon this point, perhaps 

 the following observation, which I had an opportunity of making a year or 

 two ago, may be the means of totally removing it. My garden being much 

 Vol. II. — No. 6. i 



