18 BULLETIN 14 6; UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



interest ,in birds' eggs and only took a clutch or two for his own 

 collection. On April 26, 1834, he found a clutch of this species in 

 a nest of the song thrush {Turdus philomelus) and from 1852 on- 

 ward, as the circumstances began to be known to German naturalists, 

 he found a long series of nests with eggs of which he gives full 

 details. Most of these eggs were laid in old nests of song thrush 

 {Turdus philo'fnelus) , but some were placed in old nests of pigeon 

 (probably Columba foLumhus) or squirrel's dreys, and in one case 

 the young were found ,in an old nest of red-backed shrike {La7iius 

 collurio). Another curious case recorded is that in which an old 

 aspen {Populus tremula) was broken off and a hole which had been 

 occupied in the previous year by a pied flycatcher, contained a 

 brood of young green sandpipers, which had apparently only been 

 hatched half an hour before. On the forester's approach the young 

 birds jumped from the hole and concealed themselves among the grass. 

 Some further details are also given in a letter from Hintz sent to 

 the Rev. H. S. Hawkins and published in Dresser's Birds of Europe ; 

 also in the Journal fur Ornithologie for 1864 (p. 186). 



Summarizing these we find that the birds arrive on their nesting 

 grounds in Germany from the beginning to the middle of April, 

 choosing wooded localities in marshy cl,istricts with pools or slow- 

 flowing streams in the neighborhood. Old nests of song thrush, 

 blackbird, mistle thrush, red-backed shrike, and half-ruined nests 

 of jay, woodpigeon, or squirrej. are all adopted from time to time. 

 Occasionally the eggs are laid in a hollow where dead leaves and 

 pine needles have accumulated, and holes formerly used by starlings 

 and flycatchers have been taken possession of. The height from the 

 ground varies considerably, some nests may be as much as 35 or 40 

 feet above the ground while others are only a few feet up. The 

 distance from the nearest water is also variable, as though most 

 nests are within 500 yards, yet occasionally the birds have been 

 known to nest half a mile away. 



Meantime H. W. Wheelwright in Sweden had met with an exactly 

 similar state of things, and in the Field newspaper of August 18, 

 1860, described the tree-nesting habits of this species. The editor, 

 who was ignorant of the evidence of Weise and Hintz, openly ex- 

 pressed his doubts as to the accuracy of the observations, but Wheel- 

 wright stuck manfully to his facts and subsequently the editor ad- 

 mitted his mistake. The republication of Wheelwright's notes in 

 Sweden in 1866 elicited further evidence from Jagmaster Lundborg, 

 who had on one occasion taken the eggs from what appeared to be 

 an old squirrel's drey or nest. The only important difference in the 

 habits of the bird in the two countries appears to be that nests of 

 .the hooded crow {Corvus c. comix) are freely used in Sweden and 

 also those of the fieldfare {Turdus pilaris). 



