Birds. 9105 
Longeared Owl at Stratford St. Anthony, Wiltshire.—On the 6th of May a good 
specimen of the longeared owl (Strix otus) was killed by a shepherd at Stratford 
St. Anthony, Wiltshire: he observed the bird sitting in an elder bush, and looking 
quite foolish (no doubt from being disturbed at mid-day), so he knocked it down with 
his crook. I believe this is by no means an uncommon bird about Salisbury, but I 
have never met with it at Stratford before. A few days ago I asked a keeper who is 
employed on the Wilton estate of the Earl of Pembroke, if he had seen any rare birds 
about lately: he told me there was 2 longeared owl's nest in a tree hard by; it con- 
tained only one young one, as he had killed two of the same brood a day or two before, 
and intended killing this one as soon as he could get the old birds. He took me to 
the tree to show me the two young ones that he had killed, but they were gone, so I 
climbed the tree to look at the one that was alive: wheu I came to lvok into the nest, 
I found the young one still alive and grown to a good size, also the bones, and part of 
the flesh and feathers of the two young owls that were killed by the keeper and laid at 
the bottom of the tree; the flesh appeared to be in good part eaten from the bones. 
1 supposed by this that the old bird had fed her living young one on its unfortunate 
relations.— Anthony S. Bradby ; Moundsmere, Hants. 
Fieldfare near Andover on the 18th of May.—Y esterday I killed a fieldfare: it was 
a solitary bird, and proved on dissection to be a female; the ovary contained six eggs. 
Tt seems to me rather extraordinary that a bird of this species should be here in such 
a May as the present, with the thermometer at 100° in the sun. The stomach was 
filled with Coleoptera of the genus Elater, and apparently of two species: I little 
expected to find such food.—Henry Reeks ; Manor House, Thruxton, May 19, 1864. 
Fieldfares in: Yorkshire in May.—I do not know whether it is a common occur- 
rence in this part of England to have these birds so late, never having lived so far 
north before, but this afternoon I saw in the fields near here a flock of from one 
hundred to a hundred and fifty. I examined them attentively for some time with my 
landseape-glass: they were moderately tame, and let me approach within fifty or sixty 
yards.—R. Tyrer, Keighley, Yorkshire, May 1, 1864. 
{I think this is not unusual.—Z. N.] 
Singular Nest of a Song Thrush.—In the month of March last a pair of song 
thrushes built their nest on the top of a straw bee-hive which stood on a covered stand 
in my kitchen-garden. The hive was tenanted by the usual complement of bees, 
which perhaps was the reason that the thrushes forsook their nest after the female bird 
had laid three eggs.—J. H. Gurney; Catton, Norwich, May, 1864. 
Song Thrush nesting on the Ground.—This spring I found a nest of the song thrush 
built quite on the ground: the nest was placed at the bottom of a dead hedge that 
divides two water-meadows: there was a small stream of water running close beside 
the nest. The eggs were broken, and to all appearance sucked by a rat, at least 
I thought so, as rats are very numerous there.—Anthony S. Bradby ; Moundsmere, 
Hants. 
Redwings singing in England.—Many communications have lately appeared on 
this subject in the ‘ Zvologist.’ Perhaps a few notes on my humble experience may 
tend to clear the matter. For years I have noticed the redwings congregating in vast 
quantities during mild weather in the spring and previous to their journey to the 
north. On such occasions I have seen them in thousands, scattered about the ground 
and covering the trees and bushes, especially towards the evening, and have been 
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