NOTES AND QUERIES. 339 



fell desperately in love with a Red-crested Braziliau Cardinal, and made 

 every endeavour to induce her to nidificate. Bullfinches and Yellow, 

 hammers often mate, too, with Canaries, though the eggs never hatch. In 

 June last a male Siskin and female Greenfinch reared a hybrid of their 

 own, in Carlisle, until it was a week old ; the hen bird then left it to go to 

 nest again ; the nestling died, and was eaten by a Tawny Owl before 

 I could examine it. There is also in Carlisle a fine hybrid between the 

 Lesser Redpoll male and Bullfinch female, reared in confinement in 1882.— 

 Hugh A. Macpherson (3, St. James Road, Carlisle). 



Red-backed Shrike in Lincolnshire.— As Mr. Seebohm, in his work on 

 ' British Birds and their Eggs,' says of the Red-backed Shrike, " Curiously 

 enough, it does not appear to have yet been noticed in Lincolnshire," T think 

 this should at once be set at rest. I have known it to be a regular summer 

 visitor to the southern part of that county for a good many years, breeding in 

 the tall hedgerows, sometimes only about two feet from the ground, and at 

 others as many as eight or ten. I have seen some nests of this species 

 beautifully and compactly made, and lined with fine grasses and horsehair, — 

 frequently without hair, — and others as loosely made and lined with feathers. 

 The situation and state of the weather, I believe, have a great deal to do 

 with this ; for when the weather has been cold and the situation bleak, the 

 nest has been built very low in the hedge and firmly and compactly made ; 

 then, again, the weather having changed from cold to very hot, the same 

 pair of birds (the first nest having been taken) have built a nest at the top 

 of the hedge, at an elevation of ten feet, quite as loose and as flimsy. True, 

 the fact of the first nest having been taken may have had something to do 

 with it ; yet I have seen other instances, without any knowledge of a previous 

 nest having been taken. A male bird is now in my possession which was 

 obtained there in 1873, and it was known as a summer visitor before that. — 

 J. Cullingford (University Museum, Durham). 



[Mr. Cordeaux, who enters it as "rare" in his ' Birds of the Humber 

 District,' states that he has never seen it himself in Lincolnshire. But then 

 it should be remembered that he resides in the north of this large county, 

 while Mr. Cullingford's observations were made in the south. — Ed.] 



'The Ibis' List of British Birds. — In order to make the recently 

 issued 'Ibis' List of British Birds of as much practical value as possible, 

 may 1 direct attention to its use as a " check list," which will be serviceable 

 to ornithologists in enabling them to carry out an improved system of 

 labelling and arranging eggs and mounted specimens of British birds? 

 As the present list is not numbered, it should be understood that those 

 species included in brackets must be omitted, or the mistakes which will 

 arise will make confusion worse confounded. If the British Ornithologists' 

 Union Committee would al&o publish a list for labelling, printed in bolder 



