NOTES AND QUERIES. 355 



I was almost jeered at by all to whom I showed my young Thrushes for 

 taking so much trouble to rear such good-for-nothing birds; for all that 

 I did not give them up, believing them capable of turning out very good 

 songsters, and very charming in every way. It was in the little town of 

 Mendrisio, at the foot of Monte Generoso, that I procured a young Blue 

 Thrush of a month old. Poor little bird ! how glad I was to get him home 

 to Lugano and wash him, for his feathers were caked with dirt. The Italian 

 " paese" and small tradespeople, so dirty in themselves, seem to think their 

 captive birds are equally indifferent to cleanliness ; for my young Thrush 

 had been reared by an old man, the occupier of a dank and dark tobacco and 

 eating shop, who, by-the-bye, possessed the only Rock Thrush I saw in 

 captivity — a fine male bird of the previous year's rearing, in very fair 

 plumage, the blue head and chestnut breast being fully assumed — most 

 resentful of any foreign interference, and pecking fiercely at my fingers 

 when I held- them to the bars of the cage. As to the young Passera, he 

 grew apace, and eat I should be afraid to say how much. As I write he is 

 sitting near me, a full-grown bird in perfect winter plumage, apparently 

 not regretting his exile from snow-capped mountains and vine-clad valleys. 

 — Hubert D. Astley (Henley-on-Thames). 



Young Rooks with White Chin-spots.— The note by Mr. Millfer 

 Christy (p. 302) is very interesting. I recently obtained an almost full- 

 grown young Rook with a large, pure white patch on the chin, extending 

 two inches from the base of the bill and up to the rami of the maudible ; 

 the first three or four primaries on each side are also white. On mentioning 

 this bird when at Mr. Boud's, he pointed one out in his colledtiou marked 

 exactly in the same way. It is curious how certain marked Wtrieties are 

 recurrent. — S. L. Mosley (Huddersfield). 



Tree Sparrow breeding at Harrow. — On referring to "Yarrell" 

 (4th edition, vol. ii-, p. 85), I find it stated that Middlesex is one of the 

 English counties in which this bird has not yet been recorded as breeding, 

 " but it has probably been overlooked." I do not know whether it has 

 since been recorded from Middlesex, but if it has not, I can testify that it 

 breed annually in the neighbourhood of Harrow, in that county, showing an 

 evident increase since 1876, when the ' Flora of Harrow,' with a list of 

 the birds, was published, in which it is stated that the Tree Sparrow is 

 " uncommon, but seen occasionally in small flocks during the winter." — 

 G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton (New Ross, Co. Wexford). 



[See ' The Zoologist,' 1887, p. 24.— Ed.] 



Swallows nesting Indoors.— In July last a pair of Swallows built 

 their nest in the cornice of a sitting-room in coustant use ; the wiudows of 

 the room, though open all day, were, with one or two exceptions, closed at 

 night ; supper was served in the room, and not unfrequently pipes were 



