NOTES AND QUERIES. 347 



our garden. I caught the young ones and put them in a canary cage, 

 and tied a piece of string to the door and hid myself: in about ten minutes 

 she came, and after a bit went into the cage, and I pulled the door to." I 

 gave him a shilling, saying, " Are you satisfied ? " " Yes, sir." I replied, 

 tossing the Snipe up, " So am I ; and I am sure the Snipe is." The two 

 young ones are now in Mr. 0. V. Aplin's collection of birds in down.— 

 J. W. Whitaker (Rainworth Lodge, Notts). 



Pied Puffin and Razorbill at St. Kilda.— Those of your readers who 

 are interested in abnormal plumage may be glad to know that among the 

 seafowl snared by the men of St. Kilda last June occurred a Razorbill and 

 a PufSn, in each of which the upper parts were pied with white. This I 

 learn from the late schoolmaster there, Mr. Mun-ay, whom I first met on 

 the island last year. Mr. Murray tells me that the Razorbill is the only 

 pied specimen that has ever been takem at St. Kilda. " The pied Puffin," 

 he continues, " is not such a rarity in St. Kilda. They see one or two 

 pied Puffins every year. This one was killed on Boreray during the first 

 week of June." — H. A. Macpherson. 



[In 'The Zoologist' for 187:2 (p. 3279) Lieut.-Col. Feilden, in an 

 article on the Birds of the Faeroes, remarks that white varieties of the 

 Puffin are not unfrequently seen there. Two were in the collection of 

 Herr Miiller, and he saw a beauty in the flesh brought from the island of 

 Naalsoe on the 17th June: it was pure white with black eyes, and one 

 single black feather on the breast ; the legs and bill were of the ordinary 

 colour. — Ed.] 



Open Nests of the Starling, Stock Dove, and Tawny Owl.— A 



Starhng's nest was found on May 5th at Gatton, in Surrey, in an ivied 

 spruce-fir, some thirty feet up, the peculiarity of which was that it was a 

 cup-shaped nest open to the sky. I never remember to have come across 

 one like this before, though they are not unknown to the much greater 

 birds'-nesting experience of Professor Newton, cf. Yarreli B. B. (4th ed. ii. 

 p. 232, note). On an adjoining tree we found an open Stock Dove's nest, 

 built like a AVood Pigeon's. All the Stock Dove's nests I have seen before 

 were in holes. I have also seen thi-ee Tawny Owls' nests this summer 

 which were quite open, one in the crotch of an oak, and two in tiie tops of 

 the stumps of decayed broken alders ; two of them were in Norfolk and 

 one at Whitley, in Surrey.— J. H. Gurnet, jun. (Keswick Hall, Norwich). 

 [Two or three instances ol Tawny Owl's eggs being found exposed to 

 oj en view have come under our notice. Mr. C. B. Wharton some years 

 ago found eggs of this bird laid on the top of a heap of fir-needles, only a 

 foot or two from the ground. — Ed.] 



Attempt to keep the Sand Martin in confinement.— Whilst in Kent 

 last July, a man l^rouglit me live young Sand Martins which he had just 



