196 
are residents, but the few I have seen just appear and are lost again 
in a moment, so that I know little of their habits; the one figured 
here had one leg and both wings broken, and still crept into the hole 
of a jerboa-rat, from which I dug it out dead. 
Male: weight 6} oz. 
Length from bill to tip of tail 72 inches. Alar extent 10 inches. 
Head large. Bill strong, narrow and sharp, gently arched on the 
culmen ; a distinct notch near the tip of upper mandible ; gape wide. 
Tongue horny and divided at the pomt. Nostrils basal, small. Eye 
rather small. Iris of a silvery colour, tinged with yellow. 
Wings rounded; first quill very short; third longest; second, 
third and fourth quills emarginate on outer web. 
Tail short, and nearly even at the end, of twelve feathers, 2% inches 
long. 
Tareas strong. Hallux and claw stronger than the other toes, and 
as long as the inner toe, and has a large pad at its base; the outer 
toe is shortest ; the claws are much hooked. 
Contents of stomach were a few grains of Holcus spicatus and the 
exuviee of insects. 
Plumage is soft and loose. 
Colours: the whole top of the head is covered with a cap of black. 
Bill lead-colour at base and black at the point. The chin, the breast, 
and all underneath white; the body all above of a leaden colour. 
Quills and tail of a light black, edged with light on both webs; the 
outer web of the outer tail-feather is white, as well as the tips of the 
first five on each side. Feet and legs black. 
I propose for this species the name of Artamus cucullatus. 
4. OBSERVATIONS ON THE BREEDING OF THE NIGHTINGALE 
IN Captivity. 
By H. Han ey, Serceant-Masor Ist Lire Guarps. 
Being of opinion that any bird which breeds in this country in a 
wild state, might, by studying its habits, be brought to do so ina 
state of captivity, I made preparations during the winter of 1844 for 
trying the Nightingale, which I considered to be the most retired in 
its habits of any of our summer visitants. I had a cage made, 4 feet 
long by 3 feet high, the back, ends and top solid, with a wire front, 
in which I placed a small Scotch fir-tree, planted in a flower-pot ; to 
each end of the cage I attached a common-sized canary’s breeding- 
cage, communicating with the large cage by a hole about 4 inches 
square. I broke a new birch-broom, and filled up the cages at each 
end, to make them resemble as near as possible the bottom of a thick 
hedge, and then put in a plentiful supply of withered oak-leaves and 
moss, of which the nightingale forms its nest, covering the fronts of 
the two small cages with green glazed calico: I placed the cages high 
up against a wall facing a landing-window. The following spring, 
that is, about the latter end of April 1845, I directed a bird-catcher 
(Blake, of John-street, Tottenham-court-road), who goes to Watford 
