264 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
night, when one again took to it and laid seven more eggs. These I took, 
when they left the nest for about ten days, after which they made another 
nest on the other side of the island and laid one egg, then came back and 
laid three more in old nest, one of the birds acting the male again. In fact 
the one in the water was always very bold, and swam at anyone going near 
the side of the pond. I think the number of eggs laid is so unusual, and 
the conduct of the birds so strange, that I forward this account of their 
doings for publication.—J. Wutraker (Rainworth Lodge, Notts). 
Stock Dove appropriating a Song Thrush’s Nest.—On May 28th, in 
a spruce fir, which was one of a plantation near a stream rather over a mile 
from here, two Stock Dove’s eggs were taken out of a Song Thrush’s nest. 
The bird flew off as my companion, C. Flight, ascended the tree; he 
brought down both nest and eggs. The nest, which was about ten feet 
from the ground, was that of a Song Thrush of the year, well lined with 
mud. ‘lhe Stock Dove had filled the nest in with fine roots, so as to 
form a sort of concave platform. The eggs had been sat on some little 
time. The Stock Dove will, T know, sometimes appropriate an old nest of 
a Magpie, or even make no nest at all; but I have never either read or 
heard of an instance in which it has used the nest of the Song Thrush.— 
Joun H. WiLLMore (Queenwood College, near Stockbridge, Hants). 
Jackdaws breeding in a Magpie’s Nest, and in Rabbit Holes.— 
Jackdaws are so very annoying in stopping up our chimneys with their 
nests, that I have been obliged to shoot three or four pairs every season 
during their nesting-time before the others are driven off. This spring 
they have been more pertinacious than ever, and as fast as one lot were shot 
down another replaced them, so that I was obliged to wage unceasing war. 
They then became so cunning that they attempted to build only in the early 
morning before any person was about, and never came near the chimneys 
during the rest of the day, but kept with the Rooks on the rookery trees, 
and roosted there at night. When they fonnd that I kept such a close 
watch on their movements, they turned their attention elsewhere, and 
I thought I had got rid of them; but one day, about the middle of April, 
I was surprised at seeing several Jackdaws making a great noise, and 
playing about a Magpie’s nest on an ash tree about sixty feet high, situated 
about twenty yards from the cottage. I had shot the hen Magpie, and the 
cock had deserted the nest some time before, so there was no owner 
to dispute possession with the Jackdaws, who took up their abode there, the 
hen laying and hatching out her young safely a few days ago. This 
proceeding of the Jackdaws appears to me so very unusual that I should be 
glad to know if any of your contributors are aware of any similar instance 
of Jackdaws breeding in Magpies’ nests. For some years past large num- 
bers of these birds have bred in the rabbit-holes on the island of Bartragh; 
in many cases the burrows are in level ground, with scarcely any bank 
or risiung.—RoBperr Warren (Moy View, Ballina, Co. Mayo). 
