2728 The Zoologist — August, 1871. 



" confusion " may have existed is not the fault so much of the original 

 describer of a species as of careless investigators coming after and ignoring 

 the labours of their predecessors. No man can be absolutely perfect in his 

 knowledge of the vast mass of ornithological literatui'e, but many might 

 easily be more perfect than they are. — R. B. Sharpe, in the ' Field ' news- 

 paper. 



[The desultory and somewhat unsatisfactory discussion which has been 

 carried on for some weeks in the ' Field ' newspaper, on the specific 

 distinctness of Ruticilla Cairii can scarcely be settled thus. My friend Mr. 

 Howard Saunders would not have concluded that Pai'us caeruleus was the 

 same species as Ruticilla tithys on the ground that he found it succeeding 

 the latter in the occupation of the same hole for nesting purposes. A series 

 of carefully conducted observations is required before we can establish a 

 new species or disestablish an old one. I have quoted the latter part of the 

 paragraph because I never like to cite for comment a portion of a contribu- 

 tion to another periodical without giving the whole : I am aware that it has 

 no connexion with anything that precedes. — Edward Newman.] 



Dooded Crows at Flaniborongh Dead in Juue. — On the 2-2nd of June I 

 observed a pair of hooded crows at Flamborough Head. One of them had 

 its leg broken. The occurrence of a pair on the 6th of June, 1858, at the 

 same locality, is recorded in the sixteenth volume of the ' Zoologist ' (Zool. 

 p. 6142). — J. H. Gurncy,jun. 



Pheasant and French Partridge. — At Keswick, in Norfolk, during th6 

 present summer, a pheasant and a French partridge laid in the same nest. 

 The eggs of the latter were removed, after which the partridge drove the 

 pheasant away and sat on twelve pheasant's eggs, five of which it success- 

 fully hatched, and went off with its brood of young pheasants during the 

 last week of June. — J. H. Gurney ; July 7, 1871. 



^uail Nesting in Wiltshire.— A quail's nest, with twelve eggs, was taken 

 near Marlborough on the 21st of June. — T. A. Preston; Marlborough 

 College, July 5, 1871. 



duails Breeding near Bampstead.— We had last year, for the first time 

 in my thirty years' experience of these parts, a few pairs of quails breeding 

 (I know of five) in the fields between Hampstead Heath and Hendou. I 

 did not write to you about these, as I took them to be escaped birds, but 

 this year T have heard tliem again calling in various localities, and the 

 labourers employed on tlie grass-farms tell me they are very generally 

 sprinkled about. They all seemed to drop into the district at the same 

 time, the middle of May. I much fear the grass will be cut before they 

 have had time to hatch out their eggs. Last summer they had every 

 chance, as half the grass-fields were not worth the cutting, and were conse- 

 quently left untouched. Strange to say I did not hear of one quail being 

 seen here when the shooting season commenced, and I have found the same 



