THE ZooLocist—Avcust, 1875. 4573 
some days. However, upon asking at a house if they had not had a young 
whale exhibiting, I was answered in the following words :—“ Ese, zur, and 
a vine lusty young vish he was, playful as a kitten—lived a week and 
growed a voot—till the vools chucked en-wie barley male!”—J. Gatcombe. 
On the Snowy Owl Nesting in Confinement,—In continuation of my 
communication on this subject in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1874 (S. 8. 4154), 
I have now the pleasure of stating that the pair of snowy owls belonging to 
my friend Mr. Edward Fountaine have this year hatched their young in his 
aviary at Haston; this being, so far as I know, the first instance of the young 
of this species being hatched in captivity. 'They are the same pair which 
produced fertile eggs last year, but did not then hatch them. This year 
the hen bird laid her first egg on the 30th of May, and four others subse- 
quently. The first egg was hatched on the Ist of July, the second on the 
3rd, the third on the 6th, the fourth on the 8th, and the fifth on the 9th. 
The last young one unfortunately died in the process of hatching, but the 
other four, Mr. Fountaine informs me, are alive and well; and he adds the 
following particulars:—‘“ The old birds are extremely savage, particularly 
the cock; he passes much of his time at the nest, waiting to be ready to 
feed the young ones; the nest is kept beautifully clean by the parent birds 
—no pellets and no rotten skins laid up with the young; the hen bird is 
very noisy, particularly towards evening; the young birds are as white as 
snow.’—J. H. Gurney; July 14, 1875. 
Cuckoos Congregating: Pigeons laying in a Magpie’s Nest.—Mr. Corbin’s 
comments on cuckoos (S. 8. 4538) remind me that about ten years ago, 
whilst walking near here, at 7 a.M., seven cuckoos in a cluster flew close 
over my head, “ cu—cu—cuckooing” violently and mobbing each other. My 
impression then was and is now, that they were pairing, after the manner 
of sparrows: unfortunately I have mislaid my memorandum, and so cannot 
find the month this occurred in: the earliest date I have observed this bird 
here was the 19th of April, 1873. In 1859 I—then a boy at Rugby 
School—obtained permission from a farmer to take a magpie’s nest built 
at the top of an isolated tree in the middle of one of his pastures. After 
considerable difficulty in reaching the nest, I found it contain inside two 
pigeon’s eggs, which probably were stock dove’s, although we boys called 
them wood pigeon’s; outside, amongst the twigs, a starling’s nest with 
three eggs, and two sparrows’ nests, each with eggs. I have twice taken 
kestrel’s eggs out of magpie’s nestsi— Egbert D. Hamel; Bole Hall, Tam- 
worth, July 3, 1875. 
Stock Dove in Northumberland.—I do not think the appearance of this 
bird in Northumberland is so rare as seems to be supposed from the notice 
in your June number (Zool. 8.5. 4539). On the 5th of last month I found 
SECOND SERIES—VOL, X. 2R 
