The Zoologist — January, 1867. 557 



bird is described as L. borealis, which is identical with my No. 3 ; so perhaps No. 2 is 

 not so common as the notices would seem to make it, and the term " greater" may 

 have helped to puzzle people. — /. H. J. 



Woodchat Shrike, Sabine's Gull and Gullbitled Tern in the Neighbourhood of 

 Plymouth. — Within the past two mouths the following exceedingly rare birds have 

 been obtained in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, all of which I have myself 

 examined : — Female woodchat shrike, captured with bird-lime, and kept alive for some 

 days on raw liver: this bird was in severe moult, and the old plumage much worn. 

 Sabine's gull, a young bird of the year, killed in Plymouth Sound, and stated in one of 

 the local papers to be the gullbilled teru, which it in no way resembles. Gnllbilled 

 tern, immature, shot on the Saira ; from the gullet and stomach of which several 

 beetles were taken : the colour of the bill of the young gullbilled tern is said by most 

 authors to be of a bluish black, but in this bird the base of the lower mandible is of a 

 yellowish orange, as described by Temminck. I feel much pleasure in being the first 

 to record the occurrence of the three above-mentioned birds in the vicinity of 

 Plymouth. Many black redstarts have already made their appearance on our coasts.— 

 /. Gatcombe ; Plymouth, November 16, 1866. 



Nesting of the Song Thrush. — Last April I discovered a nest of the song thrush in 

 a rather unusual situation. It was fixed on the top of a rail which was standing on 

 one end in a disused tramway arch. One end of the arch was built up, and the place 

 was dark in the daytime. The nest was robbed by mischievous boys. The birds built 

 a«ain not far distant, on the ground, among loose straw. I also found a nest of the 

 thrush, the soft lining of which was inlaid all over with bits of rotten wood. — George 

 Roberts ; Loflhouse, Wakefield. 



Nesting of the Flycatcher. — The nest of the spotted flycatcher has been variously, 

 and I think in some instances incorrectly, described. Macgillivray says the nest " is 

 small, compact, composed of straws, moss and hair, and liued with feathers.'' 

 According to Montagu, it is "formed of bents, moss, and such like materials, inter- 

 woven with spiders' webs, and lined with feathers." The Rev. J. C. Atkinson, in his 

 little work ' British Birds' Eggs and Nests,' describes it as composed of "moss, old and 

 new bents, straws, twigs, hairs and feathers." In Kuight's ' English Cyclopedia,' it is 

 said to be "loosely constructed of moss, fibres, catkins of the hazel, or small twigs, 

 lined with straw and wool, or hair and feathers." Now, I have seen many nests of the 

 flycatcher, but I have seldom found feathers in the lining. I have found a little wool 

 or hair. One that 1 minutely dissected last year was composed externally of dry soft 

 bents and a little moss, and finished with soft moss, and strips of red bark. This red 

 bark, which by the way is almost the colour of the eggs, has always formed a portion 

 of the inside and rim of the nests I have observed here. I should, however, remark 

 that I have found my nests in an orchard where red bark of the cherry and plum tree 

 is at hand. There was neither hair nor feathers in the nest that I examined. In 

 corroboration of Montagu, I have sometimes seen the rim finished with masses of old 

 spiders' webs. The writer in ' Knight's Cyclopedia ' is certainly in error when he says 

 the nest is loosely constructed, for it is generally, and accurately, described as 

 compact ; in fact, I have found some nearly as closely made and as elegantly finished 

 as the nest of the chaffinch. It has been interesting to me to leara recently, from 

 Wilson's excellent work on American birds, that some of the American flycatchers use 

 bark in the formation of their nests. Wilson, who was a minute describer of nests as 



