196 



are residents, but the few I have seen just appear and are lost again 

 in a moment, so that I know little of their habits ; the one figured 

 here had one leg and both wings broken, and still crept into the hole 

 of a jerboa-rat, from which I dug it out dead. 



Male : weight 6^ oz. 



Length from bill to tip of tail 7f inches. Alar extent 10 inches. 



Head large. Bill strong, narrow and sharp, gently arched on the 

 culmen ; a distinct notch near the tip of upper mandible ; gape wide. 

 Tongue homy and divided at the point. Nostrils basal, small. Eye 

 rather small. Iris of a silvery colour, tinged with yellow. 



Wings rounded ; first quill very short ; third longest ; second, 

 third and fourth quills emarginate on outer web. 



Tail short, and nearly even at the end, of twelve feathers, 2f inches 

 long. 



Tarsus strong. Hallux and claw stronger than the other toes, and 

 as long as the inner toe, and has a large pad at its base ; the outer 

 toe is shortest ; the claws are much hooked. 



Contents of stomach were a few grains of Holcus spicatus and the 

 exuviae of insects. 



Plumage is soft and loose. 



Colours : the whole top of the head is covered with a cap of black. 

 Bill lead-colour at base and black at the point. The chin, the breast, 

 and all underneath white ; the bodv all above of a leaden colour. 

 Quills and tail of a light black, edged with light on both webs ; the 

 outer web of the outer tail-feather is white, as well as the tips of the 

 first five on each side. Feet and legs black. 



I propose for this species the name oi Artamus cucuUatus. 



4. Observations on the Breeding of the Nightingale 



IN Captivity. 

 By H. Hanley, Sergeant-Major 1st Life Guards. 



Being of opinion that any bird which breeds in this country in a 

 wild state, might, by studying its habits, be brought to do so in a 

 state of captivity, I made preparatious durmg the winter of 1844 for 

 trying the Nightingale, which I considered to be the most retired in 

 its habits of any of ovir summer visitants. I had a cage made, 4 feet 

 long by 3 feet high, the back, ends and top sohd, with a wire front, 

 in which I placed a small Scotch fir-tree, planted in a flower-pot ; to 

 each end of the cage I attached a common-sized canary's breeding- 

 cage, communicating with the large cage by a hole about 4 inches 

 square. I broke a new birch-broom, and filled up the cages at each 

 end, to make them resemble as near as possible the bottom of a thick 

 hedge, aud then put in a plentiftil supply of withered oak-leaves and 

 moss, of which the nightingale forms its nest, covering the fronts of 

 the two small cages with green glazed calico : I placed the cages high 

 up against a wall facing a landing- window. The following spring, 

 that is, about the latter end of April 1845, I directed a bird-catcher 

 (Blake, of John-street, Tottenham-court-road), who goes to Watford 



