824 The Zoologist— July, 1867 



Ah ! bonnie wee bird— but this heart it might bre;ik, 

 Did I tell a' the tbochis that such speerins awake; 

 But, bathe in my fount still, and fill your beak, free, 

 A' my guerdon's to watch thee, and feel ye loe me. 



Kind stranger, ye' re heart-sick, come fly to yon tree, 



And list to a sang frae my ain luve an' me ! 



Ah! simple wee birdie,— that wad I richt fain, 



But our thochts they hae wings — 'lis our bodies hae nane. 



The bird and the bee may wander still free, 



And fill a' ibis soft air wi' sweet melodie ; 



But we wha' are wingless, in chains we maun grieve, 



And sigh for our ain land, frae raornin' till eve. 



"The bird alluded to is the little cardinal, smaller than our wren. Tt is found in 

 hundreds about the country in Abyssinia. It has a soft, mouse-coloured coat, dashed 

 with deep crimson, which changes at certain seasons for a mixed blue. The last 

 amusement of the Abyssinian captives was to make a fountain (a very pretty one) for 

 these birds, which are quite as tame and pert as our robins ; and nothing could be 

 pleasauter than to see them crowding to their bath, and fluttering and trimming their 

 plumage in the water, of which they are exceedingly fond. They are, at least, pretiier 

 and more delicate pets than spiders and mice, which have so often furnished a resource 

 to the listless prisoner, deprived of any other outlet to the " besoin d'amis." The 

 fountain has, on advice, been broken, lest the ingenuiiy displayed should excite too 

 much admiration, and be pressed into State service; but a stone basin has been set 

 instead for our favourites, and ihey are duly fed. They are so tame now that one can 

 almost catch them with the hand. — C. D. C." [Communicated by the Rev. Murray 

 A. Malhew.] 



Nesting of the Redstart in curious situations. — Of all the curious situations selected 

 by birds in which to build their nests, no species, I believe, occupy more singular siles 

 than our pretty summer specie*, the redstart or redtail. Several instances have come 

 under my notice. On the 7ih of May I saw a lad with an old battered and brokeu 

 tin pail, in which was built a nest containing one egg only, quite fresh laid: he told 

 me he found it laying on a heap of rubb^h on Unthanks Road, near Norwich, and 

 also that he found two other nesis in the same spot, built in similar articles, but that 

 they contained no eggs. The following day a friend of mine informed me of a pair of 

 redstarts that had constructed a nest in the interior of an old boiler that was suspended 

 from a wall in his gardeu: on the I4ih of May it contained five eggs: he took much 

 interest in watching the progress of the little birds, but was grieved on looking, two 

 days afterwards, to find that some one had robbed the nest of its contents and driven 

 the poor birds away. — T. E. Gunn. 



Grayheaded Wagtail near Norwich. — On the 13th of April a beautiful adult male 

 specimen of this rare species was killed in this neighbourhood: it was in company 

 with a small flock of the common yellow wagtail, with several of which it was shot 

 and sent to a friend of miue, who kindly presented to me this rara avis. Mr. H. 

 Ste»enson, in his 'Birds of Norfolk' (vol. i. p. 164), mentions but three well- 

 authenticated previous instances of the occurrence of this species in this county. — Id. 



