The Zoologist — November, 1866. 481 



but of the same coarse texture as the body of the nest — a most 

 uncomfortable bed. Plenty of feathers are to be had on the shore. 

 The eggs are transparent white, the yolk causing a pink tinge, and the 

 air-cell discernible : many eggs are speckled with red or brown, but 

 these marks are caused by the droppings of the fleas which frequent 

 the holes, and come off with slight moisture. All eggs taken were 

 quite fresh, and some nests still unfinished. The eggs were of all 

 shapes, from that of a kingfisher to that of a swift, though of course 

 smaller: the greatest number was six in a nest; this occurs often. 

 August Oth, 1862. — Visited the sand martins again at Shanganah, to 

 procure specimens of the young in first plumage : I took three from a 

 nest fully fledged ; most other nests were unoccupied. The second 

 nest is built in the same hole, just beyond the first, which still 

 remains : how the sand is removed, without disturbing the old nest, I 

 do not know. The new nest is composed externally of hay, is flat and 

 shapeless, lined copiously with feathers of the douieslic fowl, wool, &c. 

 This difference of material is very strange; that in the warm summer, 

 hay, straw and feathers should be used, and in the changeable spring 

 damp sea-weed. 



Swift. — Notwithstanding the bad reports of some of the cor- 

 respondents of the ' Zoologist ' that the swift is disappearing from 

 their neighbourhood, I am grateful and happy to say that the dear old 

 fellow is still abundant in this county, though of late years, perhaps, 

 not so abundant as of yore. I rarely see those delightful and large 

 flocks of swifts 1 used to see collect before a summer evening's shower, 

 and hawking in the one spot for five or ten minutes at a time : this is 

 one of those beautiful and wonderful sights which must instinctively 

 draw a gaze from the most apathetic creature of our species. 



Greenjinch : Food and Nesting of the Young.— It is generally 

 quoted as an extenuating circumstance for the mischief, or so-called 

 mischief, caused by birds, that they consume a great amount of insect- 

 life to feed (heir young. Though a lover of the bird, still as a 

 naturalist I cannot but slate that I never knew the greenfinch to feed 

 its young upon anything but the unripe or sprouting seeds of various 

 weeds and garden plants. This year I have examined some dozens 

 of nests of young, from a day old and upwards, carefully extracting 

 the mass of food from the crop (in no case did a bird die), which in 

 many cases would have filled a large tea-spoon, and only once did I 

 find a larva, and that, 1 thought, must have been taken accidentally 

 with the seed. The seeds are given to the young quite entire, though 



SF.COND SERIES — VOL I. ^ Q 



