92 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xiv. 



tree top, but the song uttered from the perch was quite inferior 

 to its song in the air, which, excepting perhaps the Nightin- 

 gale's, is the most beautiful that I have as yet listened to. 



Stanley Lewis. 



UNUSUAL BOLDNESS OF ROBIN IN DEFENCE OF 



YOUNG. 



Birds in London gardens are no doubt frequentlv influenced 

 in their behaviour by constant proximity to human beings, 

 so that this may account for the unusual boldness of a Robin 

 {Erithacus r. melophilus) in my garden at Hampstead. This 

 bird has a nest containing young in some iv^' on a fence about 

 five feet from the ground. When sitting the bird was remark- 

 ably tame and allowed people to crowd round and look at it 

 without moving from the nest. But since the young have 

 hatched the bird swoops down at everyone who approaches 

 the nest close]3^ If one puts one's head or one's hand close 

 to the nest it darts down, brushing it with its wings and hitting 

 it with its feet and occasionally with its beak as well. Usually 

 it does not strike very hard, but once it just drew blood. The 

 swoop is made from a branch three or four feet above the nest, 

 and the descent is at an angle of about 45°. After striking, 

 the bird sometimes continues its descent to the ground and 

 sometimes rises to another bough overhead. Its persistence 

 in this performance is remarkable, and so long as one keeps 

 quite close to the nest it continues to swoop, making each 

 time the little hissing " tick " which signifies anger. 



Yet the bird will feed the young without hesitation when 

 several people are standing within a few feet of the nest, and 

 attacks only when a nearer approach is made. Whether it is 

 the cock or the hen I cannot say, but for the last few days only 

 one bird has fed the young or appeared, though during 

 incubation the male was constantly feeding the female on 

 the nest. H. F. Witherby. 



HOOPOES IN STAFFORDSHIRE. 



As there are only eight records of the Hoopoe {Upupa e. epops) 

 from Staffordshire, and three at least of them are merely 

 names of localities M^here it is said to have occurred, the 

 following note may be of some interest. 



On May 28th, 1920, a Hoopoe was shot at Walsall and 

 set up very badly by a local barber. In June I was told 

 that a "Magpie Woodpecker" had been shot, but from the 

 description I thought the bird would prove to be a Hoopoe, 

 and on examination this proved to be the case. The publica- 



