xNOTES. 211 



As a rule birds building in hedges do not remove the fceces, 

 as they fall to the ground among rubbish and are not con- 

 spicuous, but even here we soon find another exception in 

 the Bullfinch, which, as far as my experience goes, always 

 removes them. 



Again in the case of the Sparrow-Hawk, which builds a 

 large nest, we find other means used for keeping it clean. 

 If the young ventured near the edge of the nest (composed 

 of loose sticks) they would soon fall to the ground, so they 

 have the power of ejecting the fceces for a distance of several 

 feet. 



The theory that the fceces are removed in order that all 

 traces of the young should so far as possible be obliterated, 

 does not seem to me satisfactory, as we find in the case of a 

 bird like the Starling often sufficient evidence of a nest of 

 young at a great distance. H. W. Ford-Lindsay. 



[The Blackbird, Song-Thrush and Mistle-Thrush have been 

 recorded as swallowing the fceces of the young. — H.F.W.] 



NORTHERN BULLFINCH IN SHETLAND. 



On October 23rd, 1910, I had the good fortune to see three 

 Northern Bullfinches {Pyrrhula pyrrhula) in the garden at 

 Leog, Lerwick. They flew out of a shrub and lighting on the 

 ground at once began feeding within about twenty yards of 

 where I was standing. I watched them with my naked eye 

 and also with my glass for some time, but they were apparently 

 too intent on feeding, as they paid no attention to me. All 

 three birds were cocks, and, strange to say, when I first saw 

 them, they were j^ractically in the same place as the ones 

 seen by me in November, 1905 {Annals Scot. Nat. Hist., 1906, 

 pp. 50, 115, and British Birds, I., p., 246). I left them 

 feeding, but on looking for them next morning they were gone. 

 Two cocks and a hen were reported as having been seen at 

 Helendale, near Lerwick on the same day. John S. Tulloch. 



CROSSBILLS NESTING IN ENGLAND. 



[Plate 3.] 



The coloured plate of the Crossbills which appears in this 

 number is from a very careful drawing by Sergeant C. G. 

 Davies (Cape Mounted Rifles). The material Mr. Davies 

 worked from was collected in England during the spring of 

 1910, and I must liere express my indebtedness to Sir Thomas 

 H. C. Troubridge, Bart., who sent me a nest from which the 

 young had flo\vn, together with part of the tree in which the 



