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THE ZOOLOGIST. 



me to billet "Toby" on the cook, in whose care she flourished, and deve- 

 loped conservative principles. So averse was she to innovations, that when 

 her cage was changed, she refused food for twenty-four hours ; and if her 

 zinc bath was placed in the right corner of her cage instead of the left, she 

 indignantly cast in her lot with the " great unwashed " until the offence 

 had been removed. After keeping her sixteen months I sent her to console 

 a forlorn male Ring Ouzel in the Western Aviary, whose wild rich notes had 

 won my heart. Though the Ring Ouzel is one of the rarest Norwegian 

 thrushes, I long watched a fine old male near a station in the Romsdal in 

 1878. During the severe winter of 1880-81 a single Ring Ouzel made 

 his appearance on the garden-lawn of a house at Charlton, where my friend 

 Mr. W. F. D. Curtoys was visiting, and shared the sparrows' crumbs; two 

 others lingered in the neighbourhood, but were too shy to approach the 

 house. I know of another example shot in Devon in the winter following. 

 My correspondent Mr. Ebdell observed a newly-arrived male Ring Ouzel at 

 Ripon on March 4th, 1R8S, apparently much exhausted by a long flight.— 

 Hugh Macphekson (Carlisle). 



Swallow and Wren nesting in proximity. — In a corner of an arbour 

 in the grounds of Duff House, belonging to the Earl of Fife, and about a 

 mile from Banff, there is now (June 13th) a Wren's nest and a Swallow's 

 nest in such close proximity as to be actually attached to each other. The 

 one, a round ball of moss, has an opening, just above the edge of its 

 neighbour, about as large as would admit an ordinary thumb. The other, 

 cup-shaped and open at the top, is composed externally of mud, but 

 internally is well lined with feathers. The Swallow's nest, at the date 

 mentioned, contained eggs ; but of the contents of the Wren's nest I can 

 say nothing. Wishing that both birds might succeed in their work of 

 incubation, and knowing the extreme susceptibility of the Wren in regard 

 to interference with its nest, I refrained from inserting my fingers. I do 

 not remember to have ever seen two objects placed naturally together, and 

 presenting such a remarkable contrast as these nests; certainly not in bird 

 architecture. The curiosity must be seen to be rightly appreciated, as 

 most if not all things in Nature must be.— Thomas Edward (Banff). 



The Hooded Crow in Ireland.— Mr. H. Chichester Hart's remark 

 I p. 225), that the Hooded Crow is rarely seen near Dublin, suggests to me 

 that the notes of another observer may be of interest. During the past six 

 or eight years I have frequently seen Hooded Crows, generally singlv, and 

 never more than two together, feeding on the shore in the neighbourhoods 

 of Malahide, Clontarf, and Bally brack. It is a species which, although not 

 plentiful, is by no means uncommon on those parts of the coast that it does 

 frequent. At the end of March, 1878, I found a pair breeding in a small 

 (■lump of trees at Finnstown, near Lucau, Co. Dublin. The nest was 



