558 The Zoologist — January, 18G7. 



well as other things, says the nest of the redeyed flycatcher* (Muscicapa olivacea) 

 " is formed of pieces of hornets' nests, some flax, fragments of withered leaves, slips of 

 vine-bark, hits of paper, all glued together with the saliva of the bird and the silk of 

 caterpillars, so as to be very compact; the inside is lined with fine slips of grape-vine 

 bark, fibrous grass, and sometimes hair." The nest of the yellowthroated chat 

 (Af. sylvicola) ' is composed outwardly of thin strips of the bark of grape-vines, moss, 

 lichen, &c, and lined with fine fibres of such like substances." The peculiar materials 

 of the nests of these two foreign flycatchers resemble remarkably, being indeed almost 

 identical with the materials of the nest of our own flycatcher, as far as I have observed. 

 Feathers, be it remarked, are not mentioned by Wilson. The use of red slips of bark 

 I consider a peculiarity which would enable anyone acquainted with the nest to 

 distinguish it among a hundred others. The fly catcher frequently builds its nest in 

 places where it f.iils to rear its young. One year I found one in a hollow of a cherry- 

 tree, where, during a heavy thunder-storm, the rain collected, and the young were 

 drowned. Another I found, built right at the end of a long, horizontal pear-tree arm, 

 was demolished by the wind. — George Roberts ; Lofthouse, Wakefield. 



Instance of Fearlessness in the Blackcap (Sylvia atiicipilla). — In the course of the 

 summer of 1865 I was visiting an uncle who resides in this neighbourhood, when my 

 little cousins came running to me and said, "Oh, cousin Harpur, come and look at our 

 blackcap's nest;" and so to look at it I went, and in a small juniper bush I found a 

 female blackcap sitting upon her ntst. She did not evince the least alarm at my 

 approach, and upon putting my finger into the nest to feel how many eggs there were 

 in it, instead of flying off, she set up her feathers and pecked al my hand in the most 

 furious inanuei, and I had to push her aside in order to discover how many eggs she 

 had got. Upon expressing my surprise at her extraordinary lameness my young 

 relations remarked, " Oh, she always does like that, and we have to push her off the 

 nest whenever we want to look into it, but when the cock bird is on he flies off as soon 

 as we try to touch him." This bold little lady hatched her eggs, but I regret to say 

 that the nesl from frequent handling got rather lop-sided, and the young birds fell out 

 and came to grief. — //. Harpur Crewe; Rectory, Drayton- Beauchamp, Tring, 

 ISovember 14, 1866. 



Rock Pipit inland. — On the 24th of October I shot a rock pipil (Anthus pelrosus) 

 on a fallow field at Willesden Green, which must certainly be more than twenty-live 

 miles from the sea. It was in company with several meadow pipits, and also one of 

 its owu species, which I take to have been a male, as my bird is a female. It was in 

 very good condition, but I regret to say that I did not examine the stomach, and so 

 am unable to say whether it was fresh from the sea-coast or not. The wind was 

 E.N E. on the previous day. — Charles B. Wharton; Willesden, Middlesex, October, 

 1866. 



Lap/and Bunting in Lancashire. — On the 27lh of October I purchased iu Liver- 

 pool Market, from a Southport birdcatcher, a fine young male of the above species, 

 which was exposed for sale in a cage along with a huge number of sky larks. I did. 

 not know what bird it was at the time, and asked the man no questions, but have since 

 been told by another Southport birdcatcher (not having seen the same man since) 



* For au account of this hiid sec Newman's ' Montagu's Dictionary.' 



