3690 The Zoologist — September, 1873. 



readers to learn that, on the 4th instant, a nutcracker {Nucifraga caryo- 

 catactes) was observed by myself and others flying over the Kingscliffe 

 Woods, about two miles from North Petherton. We had a good view of it 

 for upwards of a mile, and repeatedly heard it utter its shrill discordant 

 note. There is a record of one having been seen in this county some 

 seventy years ago ; but so far as I can learn no recent examples have been 

 observed here. — T. Cosmo Melvill ; Maunsell House, near Bridgwater. — 

 'Field,' August 16. 



Extraordinary Flight of Swifts. — A correspondent writing to me from 

 Brighton says — " A strange sight was visible here on June 30. For hours 

 there was a continuous flight of swifts from east to west. There must have 

 been some thousands of them, and I think I saw more swifts on that after- 

 noon than I ever saw before in my life. What could have been the cause 

 of this? Surely it was too late in the season for fresh arrivals to this 

 country."— F. Bond: 203, Adelaide-road, N.W.—' Field,' July 26. 



Extraordinary Flock of Swifts. — Your correspondent F. Bond remarks 

 on the enormous number of swifts which passed over Brighton on the 30th 

 June last, and it may be interesting to him and other of your readers to 

 know that on the following morning about 5.30, when walking up to Hyde 

 Park, I saw immense numbers of these birds flying to the westward, at 

 about a hundred yards above the ground, passing over the lower end of 

 Prince Albert's-road and the Brompton-road. There must have been from 

 fifteen hundred to two thousand of them, and in all my observations of birds 

 and their habits I never saw such a congregation of this species. Can any 

 one give a reason for such an assemblage, so late for a spring arrival, and so 

 early for an autumnal departure? — ' Field,' August 2. 



Stock DoTC breeding in Confinement. — My friend Mr. Harrison Weir 

 has been successful in breeding the wild stock dove : he purchased two, a 

 male and female, at dififerent times and in different places ; from the 

 beginning they were quiet and semidomestic in their manners, and seemed 

 at once reconciled to confinement. They paired in April, and the season of 

 courtship presented some rather noticeable features ; the male raised his 

 wings and tail, the latter being spread so as partially to conceal the former, 

 whereas among domestic pigeons, and I suppose the same habit obtains 

 with Columbia livia in the wild state, the tail of the male is depressed during 

 courtship, and the points of the feathers are scraped along the ground. No 

 nest was made, but a single feather was laid on the sawdust provided for 

 the eggs, which the female seemed very reluctant to lay ; the male kept her 

 in the nesting-box three days before this event took place ; when she escaped 

 from her prison-house now and then to feed, he buffetted her with his wings 

 until she returned, and the blows he inflicted were by no means light ones ; 

 at length an egg was deposited, and then another ; they were rounder and 

 smaller than those of the domestic pigeon : after this she sat with exemplary 



