68 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
tree in which the Ravens had established their home, and they 
have never nested there since. It would seem, nevertheless, that 
even now they are not quite proof against the charm of old 
association, as they have more than once paid a visit of two or 
three days to the park, and their rich mellow croak, as they loudly 
remind each other of the past, is still occasionally heard in their 
old familiar haunts among the beech woods. 
In his very useful work, ‘Pheasants for Coverts and Aviaries,’ 
Mr. Tegetmeier has examined the evidence on the disputed ques- 
tion whether Rooks destroy Pheasants’ eggs, and has detailed 
several instances (pp. 45, 46) in which they have been known to 
do so. Mr. Weaver finds the case proven, and records two 
instances in which Rooks were seen to visit Pheasants’ nests and 
steal the eggs while the hens were actually sitting on them! 
Jackdaws, too, are robbers in their way :— 
‘* At the time of year when the Fallow Deer is doffing his winter suit to 
assume a new one—technically ‘shedding his pens’—the Jackdaw finds 
it convenient to appropriate the rejected materials, as the best he can 
find, in sufficient quantity for the lining of his nest, and his proceedings on 
the occasion are characterized, in some individuals at least, by a singular 
absence of ceremony. Not content with the scattered tufts, which with a 
little industry he might collect from the trunks of trees, the fences, or any 
other object against which the deer has been rubbing himself, he actually 
has the supreme effrontery to tear off fragments of the worn-out coat from 
the very person of the owner, the latter, meanwhile, calmly watching the 
process of denudation as if it really ministered to his comfort. It is not 
unusual here in the nesting season to see from the drawing-room windows 
several Jackdaws at a time busily engaged on the backs of the deer, as they 
leisurely chew the cud while basking in the sunshine, and it is only when 
three or four of them, alighting on an old buck, pick a quarrel with each 
other and try conclusions on the spot, that they get a gentle admonition 
from one of the horns of the animal” (p. 263). 
The Dartford Warbler has been observed at West Heath and on 
East Harting Down (p. 272), and we have met with it also just 
beyond the limits of the parish on Bepton Down. 
The rarer Marsh Warbler (Acrocephalus palustris), which has 
lately been admitted into the list of British Birds as an occasional 
summer visitant, has on one occasion been found nesting in West 
Sussex (p. 276), and the Grey Wagtail, or “ Winter Wagtail,” as it 
is often called (Moiacilla boarula) has been observed to breed in 
