NOTES AND QUERIES. 307 
humming sound is produced by the wings. The tail being spread steadies 
the bird in its downward flight, and may in some degree add to the sound. 
I had a good opportunity of seeing a Snipe perch. The bird came flying 
towards me and settled on some posts and rails which run along the side of 
a hedge ina meadow. After sitting on the rail for a few seconds it walked 
along the top, using its wings to steady itself, and hopped upon a post, 
where I watched it for a minute or two. I then walked towards it till within 
thirty yards when it took flight. After passing the rails a little distance 
the bird flew back, and with legs down tried to settle on the fence, a low 
trimmed one, but finding no foothold again pitched on the post and rail. 
I crept back under the shelter of the hedge, and on looking over found 
myself within a few yards of the bird, which was standing most comfortably 
on the same post; he soon began to preen his feathers, taking hold of 
them with his bill close to the gape and running them between the 
mandibles. In this way he could get hold of the feathers on the wing- 
coverts, when a movement on my part disturbed him, and we both went 
our ways.—J. WHITAKER (Rainworth Lodge, Notts). 
Curious Sites for Redbreasts’ Nests.—In the studio of Miss Currey, 
of Lismore, which is situated in the garden, a pair of Redbreasts com- 
menced a nest this season behind a brass salver on a shelf within the 
apartment. The owner not permitting them to build there, they constructed 
a nest outside within a small watering-can that hung on a hook beside the 
door. On the lady taking down this article one day the bird flew out and 
the eggs rattled against the can, but on being replaced the Redbreast 
hatched them out a few days later and reared her brood in the can. Last 
year a Redbreast built in a fishing-basket. hanging up in the same place. 
The bird used to enter beneath the half-opened lid, and to quit the basket 
by the hole in the top. After the first brood was reared, the Robin built a 
fresh nest within the basket and laid a couple of eggs, when a marauding 
cat terminated her life.—R. J. Ussuer (Cappagh, Co. Waterford). 
Sparrows and the Crops.—The House Sparrow is a curious fellow— 
full of originality—as bold a bird for his size as is to be met with anywhere. 
His usual habitat is, as his name implies, in the neighbourhood of houses, 
chiefly towns or farms. In the towns there are always scraps to be thrown 
away, in the country the farmyards afford sustenance to the Sparrow; often 
in the former case, however, to the discomfiture of numerous half-starved 
cats that abound in urban districts. It seems odd, too, that although there 
are laws and what not for the protection of most of our birds and beasts, 
yet very little is thought about the thousands of cats that must die every 
year, in London alone, of starvation. Well, our present thoughts are not 
now with the cat, but that most republican of birds, the Sparrow. The 
Sparrow is a native of our isle, and he seems somehow to inherit the 
