NOTES AND QUERIES. 309 
the window; whereas there are many other kinds that will become very 
friendly by encouragement. I remember this last winter—by no means a 
severe one—a case of a Robin that used to sit on a stag’s head in the 
dining-room here and sing whilst breakfast was going on, becoming so 
friendly at last that one morning he pounced from his “ coign of vantage” 
and seized a pat of butter from my plate, which, however, soon slipped off 
his beak, much to his astonishment. Well, I must now draw my remarks 
on this best known of English birds to a conclusion. I much fear, however, 
that a hard time is coming for the country Sparrow, for he has increased so 
of late years, and the damage done by him to the cornfields is so great that 
the farmers, for the sake of their crops, will have to take steps to keep them 
within reasonable limits—Hzrserr Gow Stewart (Hole Park, Rolvenden, 
Ashford). 
Jackdaws breeding in a Magpie’s Nest.—In reply to Mr. Warren's 
enquiry (p. 264), I may state that I have got a clutch of Jackdaw’s eggs 
taken on the 18th April, 1888, from an old Magpie’s nest in a Scotch fir 
near a farmhouse of mine. The Jackdaw was said to have bred there 
before. For several years past a colony of these birds have bred in an old 
Rook’s nest in the dense top of a tall spruce-fir near my house here, the 
Rooks having deserted this place. They seem to prefer this site to the 
chimneys.—R. J. UssnEr (Cappagh, Co. Waterford). 
Hybrid Wild Geese.—At p. 256 of ‘ The Zoologist’ for 1883 is a notice 
of a supposed hybrid Wild Goose—a cross between a Bean and a White- 
fronted Goose, as I then considered it. The bird has now moulted into the 
ordinary plumage of a White-fronted Goose, though from the comparatively 
small amount of black on the under parts it seems to be not yet adult. It 
is evident therefore that my supposition was quite wrong, and it was only 
the immature plumage which misled me. Young White-fronted Geese may 
be constantly seen with the nail or “bean” on the mandible partly black, 
but in this example the whole beak was so very unlike what it ought to have 
been that I was led into the mistake of suspecting a hybrid origin. About 
the time that this goose was purchased in Leadenhall Market, Mr. Castang, 
of whom it was obtained, had another, which came from Holland, and was 
believed by him to have been bred in confinement. Judging from its 
appearance this bird, which was subsequently bought by my father, could 
be nothing else than a hybrid between a Grey-lag and a Bean Goose. The 
whole of the nail on the upper and lower mandible is black, the rest of the 
bill and the legs being a very pale flesh-colour. There is a certain amount 
of black on the under parts, but not much, and a good deal of white all round 
the base of the bill, or on the face, as I might term it. The lesser wing- 
coverts and region of the carpal joint are as grey as in any pure-bred Grey- 
lag. The bird died the other day, and this description was written down 
