OTES 



UNUSUAL NESTING-SITES OF PIED WAGTAIL. 



On May 28th, 1916, in the garden of Mr J Beddall Smith 

 at West Hill, Hitchin, Herts, I found in a laurel bush a nest 

 of the Pied Wagtail (Motacilla a. lugubris) (containing four 

 eggs) built inside an old nest of a Song-Thrush. The site 

 seems the more extraordinary, as within a few yards of it 

 were several stacks and some old ivy-covered walls. 



A still more unusual nesting-site for the Pied Wagtail was 

 that of two nests, each containing six eggs, found by Mr. W. 

 E. Renaut and myself on May 20th, 1911, at Icklingham, 

 Norfolk. These nests were built on the ground in young fir 

 plantations, under, and well protected by, the lower wide- 

 spreading branches of the trees. P. B. Smyth. 



[In the Zoologist, 1904, p. 421, in a short paper on the 

 breeding habits of the Pied Wagtail, I showed that the habit 

 of building inside nests of other species was commoner than 

 was generally beheved to be the case. Nine instances were 

 cited in which nests of the Redbreast, Swallow, Song-Thrush 

 and Blackbird were utilized. Subsequently two more ca?es 

 came to my knowledge and were recorded torn cit., p. 456. 

 Mr. R. H. Read added two further records in the Zoologist 

 for 1905, p. 33, and also gave an instance of a genuine Wag- 

 tail's nest built in a hedgerow, so that at least fourteen cases 

 of this habit of adopting other birds' nests have now been 

 recorded. Of these no fewer than seven refer to the Song- 

 Thrush ; four to the Blackbird ; two to the Redbreast and 

 one to the Swallow. A nest of a Pied Wagtail on the ground 

 in the sandhills in Norfolk was recorded by Mr. CD. Borrer 

 {Brit. B., IX., p. 26) and I have seen nests similarly placed 

 in the dunes'on the Dutch coast {t.c, 48). — F. C. R. Jourdain.] 



NESTING-HABITS OF WILLOW-TITS. 



In the Chib van Nederlandsche Vogelkundigen (Jaarbericht, 

 no. 5, 1915, pp. 20-38) Mr. H. C. Siebers, a painstaking 

 Dutch ornithologist, has an interesting illustrated article on 

 the nesting habits of the form of Willow-Tit {Parus atri- 

 capillus rhenanus) found in Holland and western Germany. 

 Of this Baron Snouckaert van Schauburg has very kindly 

 provided us with a resume which will, we think, interest our 

 readers, as the bird is very nearly allied to our British form 



