Birds. 9107 
twenty song thrushes on the two thorns at one time. There is a large increase in the 
number of these birds in the autumn, caused by the arrival of foreigners, which come 
in small flocks a few days before the redwings, for which species they are often 
mistaken. After the haws are gone the thrushes feed upon the berries of a large yew, 
and now they are devouring the berries of the ivy which covers a large pollard elm 
growing close to the yew. When fruit and berries are not to be had, the whole of the 
thrushes feed upon insects, and the song thrush destroys large numbers of snails, and 
is, I believe, the only British bird which feeds upon them. I perfectly agree with all 
Mr. Fox has said with regard to the song of the redwing. When assembled in large 
flucks previous to their departure from this country, they will sit on trees warbling and 
chattering for hours at a time, but I never heard a solitary redwing atlempt to sing, 
and I believe all the supposed redwings said to have been heard singing singly on the 
tops of trees were song thrushes.— Henry Doubleday ; Epping, May 11, 1864. 
Curious place for a Blackbird’s Nest.—In a thick thorn hedge near Stratford St. 
Anthony I found an old magpie’s nest that had been inhabited by magpies in 1862: 
on lovking into the nest I was rather surprised to find it tenanted by blackbirds; they 
had built their nest so as to exactly fit into the cup-shaped nest of the magpie. 
I tried to take both nests tugether, but on cutting away some of the branches that the 
magpie’s nest was built among, the whole gave way together, probably owing to the 
magpie’s nest having been built so long as to nearly crumble to pieces on the spot,— 
Anthony S. Bradby ; Moundsmere, Hants. 
A White Blackbird.—A friend residing at Mildenhall, Suffolk, informed me that a 
white specimen of the above bird has lately been shot in that meightduaiaee by a 
gamekeeper, fur whom it was preserved.— 7. E. Gunn ; April 18, 1864. 
Ring Ouzel nesting in Yorkshire—Crossing the moor a few miles north of 
Keighley this afternoon, I came upon the nest of the ring ouzel, putting the bird off: 
the nest was built on the ground, in a shallow hole, under a bunch of ling. As I see 
some difference of opinion is expressed in ‘ Birdsnesting’ about the formation of the 
nest and the colour of the eggs, I will describe them, to the best of my ability. The 
nest consisted, first of a layer of the decayed leaves of the ling, damp and muddy as 
they came from the ground; this was covered above the level of the ground with roots 
and tufts of grass, pieces of dead ling, and various other rough materials, and the whole 
lined with coarse grass to the depth of about two inches at the bottom, and gradually 
becoming thinner to the top: in this nest the bird had clearly used an equivalent for 
mud, though as clearly had not plastered her vest with it, but had constructed of it the 
first layer. Of this I am certain, as I brought the nest entirely away from the ground. 
It contained four eggs : as they were not sitting, I suppose the old bird was about laying 
again ; they are not in the least like those of the blackbird, and if I had not known their 
origin I should have taken two for those of the missel thrush, as they are remarkably 
like them, being of a very light green, and blotched with brownish red and light 
purple: the other two are of a deeper green, so that the blotches, though quite as 
large, are not so distinct; the eggs are rather larger than a common blackbird’s.— 
R. Tyrer ; Keighley, Yorkshire, May 1, 1864. 
Black Redstart.—I have just seen your description of the black redstart (the male) 
in ‘Young England.’ I observe that you have not described the female. I have 
frequently met with it, and it is very like the female of the common redstart in 
plumage. We have usually met with the black redstart here in December, January 
and February. Ina severe winter, some years since, I shotone (a female) in April; 
