3616 The Zoologist — July, 1873. 



neighbourhood, and he tells me he has not unfrequently met with similar 

 instances ; the nests being often torn out by village bo3^s as soon as com- 

 pleted, the birds are compelled at length to lay their eggs anywhere.— 

 A. G. Butler ; Bankside Home, Sittinghourne, Kent. 



Peculiarity of Roosting obserred in a Woodpeclier.— Some years ago 

 I took a young woodpecker from the nest in an old rotten oak tree, and 

 reared it. At night it roosted by hanging from the top of the cage back 

 downwards, and the head behind the wing. I have never met with any 

 person who could tell me whether they roost in the same position in 

 a wild state. It seemed to me quite natural to the bird. — From the 

 ' Field,' June 21. 



[The fact of tlie woodpecker roosting suspended with its back downwards 

 is very interesting, but the additional statement, " and the head behind the 

 wing," I consider questionable. Is it a fact that birds put their head 

 behind the wing in roost ? I have many wild birds in confinement, and 

 have never observed this attitude : the beak is often thrust among the 

 scapularies, but the head always appears to me outside the wing and not 

 beneath it. — E. Newman.] 



Anecdote of a Kingfisher. — A lady resident a few miles from Norwich 

 has in her dining-room four pairs of canaries with several young ones in 

 some large breeding-cages. On the 11th of June, about eight o'clock in 

 the morning, the attention of her servant was attracted by an unusual 

 fluttering of the canaries, which was found to be caused by the strange 

 circumstance of a kingfisher clinging to the wires of one of the cages, 

 where it was caught by the hand and kept in confinement for a few hours, 

 when it was allowed to fly away. It was a young bird of this year, but 

 fully fledged, and had probably been hatched in the neighbourhood, as a 

 brook runs through some meadows adjoining the house which the kingfisher 

 thus entered.— J. H. Gimiey. 



J<i"lit Ueron in Jersey. — A beautiful male specimen of this bird was 

 shot last week in St. Ouen's parish, by Mr. J. Vibert, and is now being 

 stuffed by M. Charlotte, naturalist, of Bath-street. — From the 'Field,' 

 June 21. 



I*iesting of the Woodcock in Suffolk. — In the ' Ipswich Journal ' for 

 May 2nd, 1873, two instances are recorded of woodcocks having nested this 

 season in this county. In the first case a nest containing four eggs was 

 found at Ufford, all of which hatched off; one young bird was left dead in 

 the nest, and has since been preserved in spirits ; the other three have been 

 seen with the old birds in the wood. The other instance was that of a 

 deserted nest with four eggs having been found by Mr. Greene's keepers, at 

 Ixworth. — G. T. Bope; Leiston, Suffolk. 



