NOTES AND QUERIES. 353 



two inches and one-fifth inside measurement: the former was placed in 

 a thorn- bush, and was therefore open to the sky, though well screened by 

 branches above. I have seen a good many Redstart's nests, but I can only 

 recall one instance in my own experience in which a nest of R. phcenicurus 

 lias been open to the sky. The nest in question was placed in a thick 

 bush, and was surrounded by thickets. — H. A. Macpherson (Carlisle). 



Rock Thrushes, in their Native Haunts and in Captivity. — June is 

 the month for a naturalist, be he zoologist or botanist, to visit Switzerland 

 and Northern Italy; such a multitude of flowers, such interesting birds, 

 which though not to be found so frequently as are the flowers, yet are all the 

 more delightful when they are met with ; and it is of the latter that I would 

 write a few words about, more especially mentioning the two species of 

 Rock Thrushes, viz., the Rock Thrush, par excellence (Pctrocincla saxatilis), 

 and the Blue Rock Thrush (Turdus cijaneus). I was at Lugano last June 

 for a month, and birds being my grand passion, what could I do but 

 look about for them, not contenting myself with a mere passing glimpse, 

 but trying to secure some callow brood to rear up and make pets of. Now 

 I knew that both the above-mentioned species must in the summer time be 

 natives of the surrounding mountains, so almost the first morning after my 

 arrival in the quaint old town, nestling down by the shores of one of those 

 lovely lakes of Northern Italy, I started out at five o'clock, — one cannot 

 stay in bed on a real summer morning in Italy, — and found my way along 

 a white, dusty road to the foot of San Salvatore, which, as everyone who 

 has been to Lugano knows, rises up quite close to the town in the shape of 

 a huge molehill. Nature has been exaggerating as well as other good 

 people whom one meets with; but then what is a failing in them is not so 

 with her, and if she has chosen to make a mountain out of a molehill, why 

 the world is the gainer; at any rate, I know I was on this morning of which 

 I am writing, for although I neither saw nor heard anything of the birds for 

 which I was searching, yet I was rewarded by a glorious view, the sun rising 

 and throwing his light on to the distant mountains, apparently not such 

 early risers as myself; for there they were snoozing like great giants with 

 white nightcaps — the caps of eternal snow. Monte San Salvatore, although 

 thickly covered with an undergrowth of hazels, overtopped by Spanish 

 chestnuts and other trees, seemed to be lacking in bird-life. There were 

 some Blackcaps about, and near the foot some Nightingales ; and how the 

 Nightingales sing in Italy ! Is it fancy that their voices are richer and 

 their notes more varied than their English cousins? or is it merely that 

 everything being so brilliant and beautiful, one comes to the conclusion 

 that of course the Nightingale's song is, too ? Well, I thought I had better 

 find some peasant — some nice, obliging Italian — who could and would put 

 me on the track of a Rock Thrush ; and so I was rowed across, on a very 



ZOOLOGIST. — SEPT. 1888. ^ E 



