Birds. 9530 



Note on the Sparrotvhawk. — I have a still more satisfactory proof than the one 

 given in my last note (Zool. 9465) that these hawks are in the habit of removing their 

 young if disturbed. One of the gamekeepers hare, whose veracity I can vouch for, in- 

 formed me that during last summer he found a nest of young sparrowhawks ; he took 

 one of them out, tied a string to its leg, which was fastened to a peg driven into the 

 ground near the root of the tree, and set a trap beside it. Returning next day, he 

 found the string broken in the middle, the hawk gone, and also the others in the nest. 

 Not long after he found another nest with young hawks, one of which had a piece of 

 string lied round its leg, thus leaving no doubt that these were the hawks removed 

 from the first nest. — William Brown, jun. ; Wynyard Park, Slocklon-on-Tees, 

 February 13, 1865. 



Note on the Kestrel. — Two young birds of this species were brought to me last 

 summer. I kept them tied by the leg to a wooden perch : on coming to look at them 

 one day I found one of them loose, and the string, which was well knotted round the 

 leg, undone. I caught the loose bird, tied it up again, making the knots very firm, 

 and lay down behind a hedge to watch. After having settled on the perch, it began 

 with its bill to unloose the knots, which, after a short time, it succeeded in doing. 

 Both of them eventually managed to make their escape by this trick. They were also 

 very fond of bathing in a bowl of water. — Id. 



Snow Bunting at the Kingsbury Reservoir. — To-day, while walking round the 

 reservoir at Kingsbury, ray attention was attracted by a single light-coloured bird in 

 company with some sky larks, meadow pipits, and one or two starlings, searching for 

 food among the dead weeds and other refuse that have lately collected on the edge of 

 the water. While flying the white in its wings and tail was very conspicuous. It 

 was very shy, but at last, by a long shot, I succeeded in killing it, and I then recog- 

 nized it as a snow bunting. It is an adult male in perfect plumage. I am not 

 aware that the snow bunting has been seen here before. — Charles B. Wharton; 

 Willesden, Middlesex, February 8, 1865. 



Note on the Hooded Crow. — There is an unusual number of the Royston or hooded 

 crow in the water-meadows of Britford, close to Salisbury, this year : there has been 

 one, and one only, every winter for many years past about here, but this year seven or 

 eight have been seen. — Arthur P. Morres, 



Early Wren's Nest.— At Saxmundhara, Suffolk, on the 27th of December, 1864, 

 a nest containing two old and five young wrens (flyers) was found in a fence by one of 

 Mr. Long's keepers : they were all captured, and have been preserved by a birdstuffer 

 in the town. — Edward Neave ; Leiston. [Were not these birds of the previous 

 season ? — F. Neivman.'] 



Lesser Spotted Woodpecker near Salisbury. — Last week I had a female specimen 

 of the lesser spotted woodpecker sent me from Britford. It was shot by a gentleman's 

 gardener on an old walnut tree: there were two male birds at the same time vvitli it, 

 but these have not since been seen. Is this species generally considered rarer than 

 the larger spotted woodpecker? I have met with several of the smaller sort in Berk- 

 shire, Somersetshire and Wiltshire, but I have never met with the larger. — Arthur P. 

 Morres. 



Anecdote of a Hen killing Mice. — The following observations have been com- 

 municated to me by the lady to whom the hen belongs, with permission to forward 

 them for insertion in the ' Zoologist.' " A year ago I had given to me a cock and two 

 hens of the white Dorking breed ; one of the hens was accidentally poisoned, but the 



