39 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the invader, thus preserving her own eggs and those of her guardian. This 

 peculiar habit seems not to have been observed in other parts of France, 

 and Mr. Dresser's object in mentioning it is, as he says, to draw attention 

 to it and discover whether it has ever before been noticed in England. 

 I was immediately reminded of a paragraph which I saw in the ' Daily News ' 

 of August, 1876, as follows: — "Mr. F. Baker, of Kingscote, Wokingham, 

 writes to us — 'In May last a Missel Thrush built in a fir on my lawn. 

 About ten days after a Chaffinch built on a branch of the same tree, and 

 was sitting when the Missel Thrush hatched. 1 could not, after long 

 watching, see the male Thrush, by which I was led to believe he was 

 somehow destroyed. When the young were a few days old I frequently 

 beard them clamouring, as if being fed, when in a few moments the cock 

 Chaffinch only would fly from that part of the tree occupied by the Thrush's 

 iK st. Not understanding this, I posted myself in a position some distance 

 from the tree, whence, with the aid of a telescope, I could command a full 

 view of the nest, and was much astonished on seeing the Chaffinch repeatedly 

 come and feed the young Thrushes— in fact, much oftener than the Thrush, 

 which he would attack and drive away every time he found her near the 

 nest. He fed them till they flew, when his own young were hatched, which 

 he assisted his mate in rearing with equal assiduity.' " From this it appears 

 that the above-mentioned habit, or something very like it, has on one 

 occasion, at least, been observed in England. — Robert Miller Christy 

 (Saffron Walden). 



Hobby breeding in Oxfordshire. — In June, 1882, a pair of nesting 

 Hobbies were shot, and their nest with two eggs taken, in a wood near 

 Cumnor. — H. A. Macfherson (Oxford). 



Montagu's Harrier in Ireland.— At Brittas, in the Queen's County, 

 the seat of the late General Dunne, is preserved a specimen of Circus 

 cineraceus, which I have examined, and which bears the following in- 

 scription : — "Montagu's Harrier, shot by John McEvoy, gamekeeper, on 

 Ballinahemey Mountain, 25th September, 1855." This mountain is part 

 of the adjacent Slieve Bloom range. Mr. Robert Dunne, writing recently 

 from Brittas, has informed me that this specimen is in good preservation. 

 This is the fourth instance, I believe, in which Montagu's Harrier has been 

 obtained in Ireland. Two are recorded in Thompson — No. 1, at Bray 

 (vol. i., p. 247); No. 2, at the Scalp (vol. ii., p. viii). A third, again at the 

 Scalp, in 1877, on the authority of Mr. E. Williams, recorded by Mr. A. G. 

 More, in the ' British Association Guide to Dublin' (1878), p. 78. — R. J. 

 Ussher (Cappagh, Co. Waterford). 



Great Crested Grebe breeding in Oxfordshire. — Two pairs of the 

 Great Crested Grebe, Podiceps crlstatus, reared their young last summer on 

 Clattercut Reservoir, an extensive piece of water in the north of this county. 



