1218 The Zoologist— May, 18G8. 



preservation : it was a very small bird, the smallest 1 had e»er seen. The principal 

 measurements were — 



Bill (including cere), on the curve of upper mandible - I \ inch. 



Total length, beak to tail, inclusive .... 16 inches. 



Tip to tip of fully extended wings - - - - 37 „ 



Wing, from carpal joint ... ... 103 „ 



Tail, tip to root - - - - - - <i£ „ 



The bird was in a very poor and apparently starved condition : the plumage, however, 

 was good. Excepting a little blackish matter, its stomach proved empty, and on the 

 Outside surface I found a mass of thread-worms, about eight or nine in number; they 

 were coiled up together and lying loosely upon the surface: the longest worms 

 measured as much as five inches and a quarter in length. — T. E. Gunn; 21, Regent 

 Street, Norwich. 



Thrush singing while Flying. — One evening last spring a thrush pitched upon the 

 top of a tree close to me, and, for several yards of its flight before it settled, it sang 

 quite loudly, continuing its strains without interruption for some time afterwards. 

 I never befote noticed nor heard of this habit.— Henri/ P. Hensman ; Northampton, 

 March 27, 1868. 



The Nightingale. — T heard the nightingale for the first time on the 4th of April 

 and again on the 6th, which I imagine to be very early, as the usual time with us is 

 the 15th.— Augustus 11. Smith; Flexford House, Guildford, April 11, 1868. 



Robins nesting in Letter-boxes. — This season a pair of robins have built a nest and 

 hatched their young in the letter-box of Mr. Hill, nurseryman, of Newmarket Koad, 

 Norwich. The nest has been built just below the aperture for receiving the letters, 

 but the little birds do not at all seem to mind the daily disturbances necessarily made 

 by the intrusion of letters or the emptying of the box: this is the third season this 

 pair of robins have successively occupied their strange habitation. I remember a 

 similar instance, about live years since, when I saw the nest with the female sitting on 

 her eggs in an old letter-box belonging to a gentleman in the parish of Lakenham, in 

 this city, and, notwithstanding our inspection, the bird still remained faithful to her 

 charge, apparently quite fearless. The gentleman had taken particular pains to pre- 

 serve his little favourites, and kept the box exclusively for their use: he informed me 

 that the same birds had occupied their strange nesting-place for several successive 

 seasons.— T. E. Gunn; April 10, 1868. 



Brambling breeding in Confinement. — During the course of last summer a pair of 

 bramblings bred in the aviary of a gentleman in Norwich. Materials being supplied, 

 in the shape of dried mos«, Sec., the birds constructed a nest in a small box that hung 

 at one coruer of the avian : iu the course of time the female laid four eggs and sat 

 upon them several days, but leaving them they were taken away, when they proved to 

 be rotten : I have one of the eggs now in my possession. Instances of this kind have 

 been before observed, but I think their occurrence rather unusual. — Id. ; February, 

 1868. 



Pied House Sparrow in Worcestershire.— The following is extracted from a letter 

 received lately from Mr. J. S. Gibbons:— "I shot a male house sparrow during the 

 summer of J 866, which was almost entirely white on the wings and had several white 

 feathers in its tail : I killed it while it was sitting, in company with two common 



