ORNITHOLOaiCAL AND OTHER NOTES. 



BY 8. stonp:^ esq. 



Singular choice of situation for a Blackbird's Nest.— In the course of a 

 ramble last spring through a wood adjoining Cokethorpe Park, I "paid a 

 morning visit" to a Magpie's nest of the previous year, for the purpose of 

 ascertaining whether it had again become tenanted; great was my surprise on 

 cautiously approaching the spot and looking into the nest, for it was situated 

 in a bush about five feet only from the ground, to see the bright eyes of a 

 female Blackbird, (Merula vulgaris,) flashing full, yet timidly, upon me, as 

 she was sitting in the midst of this bower of thorns without the roses; having 

 chosen this extraordinary site for the construction of a domicile for her '^expected 

 family." I should have been glad to have found that she continued in quiet 

 possession, and that her "fondest hopes" had ultimately been realized; but alas! 

 poor thing, retributive justice overtook her, as it will sooner or later overtake 

 all who surreptitiously "build upon another's foundation," for on visiting the 

 nest again a few days afterwards, I found that some one less scrupulous than 

 myself had robbed it of the eggs it had previously contained: or as inexorable 

 landlords seize upon the goods and chattels of such of their tenants as from 

 want of means or from lack of principle, fail to "pay their respects" and 

 something besides at "quarter day," even so might these eggs, the sole "treasure" 

 of this poor bird, have been seized upon by the owner of the original fabric, 

 in liquidation of a claim for "ground rent;" whether such a claim might or 

 might not have been a legal one, I must leave to the proverbially "fertile 

 brain" of "Gentlemen learned in the law" to discover: albeit, I cannot help 

 thinking that if the motto "jus supra vim," were reversed it would be very 

 applicable in the above case; unquestionably might does at times dominate 

 over right, among other creatures as well as amongst those of "the Genus Homo." 



An incident in the Nesting of the Missel Thrush, (Turdus viscivora.) — On 

 the 24th. of February, 1849, I observed a pair of Missel Thrushes in an 

 orchard adjoining the residence of Henry Eustace, Esq., EUesborough Grove, 

 near Wendover, Bucks., busily engaged in the task of nidification. The building 

 continued to progress satisfactorily enough till the evening of the 28th., when 

 a heavy fall of snow followed by several days of severe frost caused a "sus- 

 pension of the works" till the 21st. of March, when the weather in the 

 interval having become more genial — operations were actively resumed. The 

 nest was finished and the first egg deposited on the fourth day from the later 

 date. This is the only instance which has come under my observation of a 

 nest having been partially built, abandoned for several weeks, and then again 

 proceeded with. There is a certain class of politicians whose cry is "economy 

 and retrenchment," the simple meaning of which said cry if carefully analyzed 

 would I fear be found to be no more patriotic or philanthropic than this — 

 all possible abridgment of the comforts of other people, and all possible 

 increase of their own. To this class I would by no means refer the above- 



