5044 Tue ZooLocist—Avcust, 1876. 
nests close to the platform, where they were rearing their young in apparent 
safety, notwithstanding the frequently-passing trains and the din and bustle 
of the adjacent iron-smelting establishment.—G. B. Corbin. 
Starlings Pecking with Open Beak.—I cannot concur with Mr. John 
Sclater. that “ observations made from tame birds are foreign to the original 
question.” I think the fact of his and my observations briuging us to the 
conclusion “that the beak is never thrust into the ground” shows that 
such observations are not so foreign to the original question as he would 
have us suppose, but his (I suppose facetious) remarks as to the starling 
making holes in the potato and ladies’ lips are so intensely ‘ foreign to the 
original question ” that I only notice them that he may see how apt persons 
are to impute to others the very thing they are themselves doing. In spite 
of being thought “ foreign to the original question,” I would remark that I 
have seen the starling insert his beak closed into his food in the food cup, 
and then press back the under mandible three or four times, rapidly, so 
much so as to scatter his food over the bottom of the cage, as well as on to 
the floor, a very different action to the pressing down as noticed by Mr. 
Sclater, and | am decidedly of opinion that the action of opening the 
beak in the manner I have described would be more efficacious in dis- 
turbing “the insects hidden in the tufts of grass or beneath the leaves ” 
than if the grass or leaves were merely pressed down as described by 
Mr. Selater, and that a vastly greater number of the death-shamming 
insects would be discovered by the starling through the first-described 
operation than by the latter. One more remark and I have done with the 
matter, as I do not intend entering into controversy on the subject: my 
observation on the capacity of “ swallow ” in the tame bird would not have 
led me to suppose that the wild one would find it necessary to make so 
minute a division of a quarter-inch grub, as described by Mr. Sclater, in | 
order to swallow it, and to me the idea of a starling making three bites of 
such a grub far outdoes the proverbial “ making two bites of a cherry.”"— 
Stephen Clogg ; Looe, July 22, 1876. 
Three Crows to a Nest.—In the last number of the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. 8. 
5006), Mr. C. M. Prior alludes to three old birds which belonged to the 
same crow’'s nest. A similar circumstance was notified in the ‘ Field,’ and 
the following is an extract from the paragraph, the date of which I have 
unfortunately not kept:—‘ A fortnight ago I shot one of a pair of crows 
which had hatched and were feeding young ones. A few days afterwards 
I found three old birds busy about the nest, and, watching them, there was 
no doubt they were engaged in feeding the young.” No locality is given. 
The communication is signed “D.” As an interesting corroboration 
Mr. Prior may like to receive this extract.—J. H. Gurney, jun. 
Note on Rooks (Zool. S. S. 4926).—From my own observation I should 
think the copulation of rooks upon trees is much more the exception than 
