ii8 Mr. jfohn Flower. 



the Hamburg are probably her progeny. If this be so, and 

 there seems every reason to suppose that it is, and disregard- 

 ing the two birds whose weights were not taken, the smallest 

 of the black hen's hybrids is more than double her weight, and 

 the largest of them is nearly three times her weight. Again, 

 one of these birds is 14-oz., and a second 2-oz. more than the 

 combined weight of both parents, whilst the third is only i i-oz. 

 less than the combined weight. The weight of the three dark 

 birds again contrasts strangely with those of the two birds 

 which are the produce of the Hamburg hen. The weight of 

 this bird was double that of the little black hen which produced 

 the big hybrids, and yet of the two hybrids which she produced, 

 one is g-oz. less, and the other only 12-oz. more than her 

 weight taken alone. 



There is another remarkable feature about these five birds. 

 Mr. Swaysland tells me that he examined them carefully to 

 ascertain their sex, and he found them all males. 



The facts connected with these hybrids are exceedingly 

 interesting, and well worthy of record, but we must not, I 

 think, attach the same importance to the singular discrepancies 

 as to size and so on, to which I have referred, as we should be 

 entitled to do had the cross been between wild birds, or with 

 birds less liable to variation than the Common Fowl. Neither 

 of the fowls were, I think, very purely bred, and it is impos- 

 sible to ascertain anything as to their ancestors. The most 

 probable explanation seems to be that the little black hen has 

 " thrown back," as it is termed, and has produced birds 

 resembling: in size one of its ancestors more or less remote. 



25. — On the nesting of the Red-Breasted Fly Catcher 

 (Muscicapa parva) in Kent, in the Summer of 

 1881. 



By John Flower, M.A., F.Z.S. 

 [Read November i6th, 1881.] 



It has, I think, been quite satisfactorily established that a 

 pair of these birds built a nest, and reared a brood of young 

 ones, in May and June of the present year, in a small garden 

 in Kent. I know the garden well, but I have thought it better, 

 for the present, not to mention the town in which it is situated, 

 as it is not at all improbable that the birds may return next 

 year, and if they do, their chance of rearing another brood will 

 be but small, if it is once known where they are to be found. 

 This Flycatcher is exceedingly rare in the British Isles. Two 

 birds of this species were seen near Falmouth in January, 1863 



