The Zoologist — August, 1873. 3651 



her egg upon the ground; the colour of the egg is variable according to the 

 condition of the ovary, wliich depends upon the age of the bird, the nature 

 of its food, and state of health at the time of oviposition. With her egg in 

 her bill, the bird then seeks a nest wherein to place it. We are not un- 

 wiUing to accept the suggestion that, being cognizant of colour, she prefers 

 a nest which contains eggs similar to her own, in order that the latter may 

 he less easily discovered by the foster-parents. At the same time, we so 

 frequently find the egg in question amongst others which differ totally from 

 it in colour, that we cannot think that the cuckoo is so particular in her 

 choice as Dr. Baldamus would have us believe. — J. E. Harting, in 

 Hardwickes 'Science-Gossip,'' 1st May, 1870. [Communicated by the 

 author.] 



Hybrid between the Common Pigeon and Tnrtle Dotc. — When in Rome, 

 two mouths ago, I had an opportunity of seeing in the University of that 

 city, and in the possession of Dr. De Santis, Professor of Natural History 

 there, several specimens of a hybrid between the common pigeon and the 

 turtle dove, which I believe is the first instance of their breeding together. 

 The male was a house pigeon and the female a turtle dove. The young 

 bird partook more of the turtle dove than the male parent in appearance. — 

 John J. Dalgleish; Brankston Grange, Culross, N.B., June 4, 1873. 



British Heronries. — In addition to the heronries already mentioned in 

 the ' Zoologist,' I am happy in being able to report three more. In Killerton 

 Park, near Exeter, the seat of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, on the summit of 

 a hill crowned with very lofty beeches, there has been a well-preserved 

 heronry from time immemorial ; the number of nests seemed considerable 

 when I last saw then (in 1867), but I did not count them. Another 

 heronry, if not more than one, flourishes in the grounds of my friend 

 Sir Wilham Clayton, at Harleyford, near Marlow, Bucks. And in the 

 grounds at Kelsey Manor, Beckenham, Kent (P. R. Hoare, Esq.), there are 

 always one or two nests annually, built in very aged Scotch firs, which hang 

 over the lake. — Henry Burney ; Wavendon Rectory, near Woburn, Be/ord- 

 shire, June 23, 1873. 



Whimbrel in the New Forest. — It may interest the readers of the 

 'Zoologist' to learn that the whimbrel is occasionally met with in the 

 forest at other times than the "dead of winter." On the 14th of May, 

 1870, I stuffed a couj^le (male and female) which had been shot in the forest 

 the previous day ; and at the beginning of May of the present year I saw 

 another which had been killed not far from Ringwood, and at the end of 

 the month I was one evening walking across some boggy ground in the 

 forest, in the hope of getting a view of a pair of hen harriers I had observed 

 a short time previously, when a whimbrel rose out of some grass and heather 

 almost at my feet. The species is, I believe, not rare during the winter 

 months iu some of the harbours of the Hampshire coast, but all the specimens 



