2798 Birds. 



Do Fieldfares Roost in Trees? — Mr. Evans remarks (Zool. 2705), contrary, I be- 

 lieve, to the general opinion, that " fieldfares roost in trees." I have, when a boy, 

 watched them going to roost many a time ; and I should say, that they roost very 

 much in bushes, — for instance, low, thick blackthorn brakes, on which I have seen 

 them settling in great quantities at dusk, and very commonly near water. White 

 states (Letter to Pennant, 27), that at Selborne they " always appear to roost on the 

 ground ; * * * and that the bat-fowlers, who take many redwings in the hedges, 

 never entangle any of this species." Once during a veiy hard frost many years ago, I 

 had several fieldfares brought to me alive, which had been taken by bat-fowling in the 

 holly bushes in this neighbourhood. Perhaps they might have been driven to have re- 

 course to a more than usually sheltered situation for roosting, by the severity of the 

 weather. — W. T. Bree ; Allesley Rectory, April 2, 1850. 



Occurrence of the Black Redstart (Sylvia Tithys) near London. — I saw last week a 

 fine female which was shot in a brick-field, at Shepherd's Bush, in October last. — F. 

 Bond ; Kingsbury, April 9, 1850. 



Occurrence of the Black Redstart (Sylvia Tithys) at Piddinghoe. — A fine male 

 specimen of the black redstart, in adult plumage, was shot at Piddinghoe, a village 

 five miles to the south of Lewes, on the 31st of March ; and is now in the possession 

 of Mr. Tompsett, of the above place. An immature male of the above species was 

 shot on the following day, April the 1st, in the immediate neighbourhood of this 

 town, by Mr. E. Johnstone, through whose liberality it is now in my possession. — 

 Charles Potter ; Lewes, April 16, 1850. 



Curious Act of Instinct in a House Sparrow. — Among the many instances in the 

 parental attachments of the lower animals, partaking rather of reason, than a mere 

 instinctive principle, I recorded one during the early part of last year, which for its 

 novelty, and unusually rational resource on the part of the bird, may justify my ask- 

 ing a corner in the ' Zoologist' for its insertion. Living in the city portion of the 

 great metropolis of London, I observed one afternoon, in the aperture generally left 

 for the cellar or kitchen window, when underground, an unfledged house sparrow, in- 

 capacitated from flying to any distance, which had been inadvertently precipitated 

 down this same dungeon, across which in an oblique direction was laid an iron bar, ex- 

 tending within a foot of the surface; the mother was at the top, looking down with pity 

 and alarm at the awkward situation of this (perhaps) her only child ; many and inge- 

 nious were the attempts on the part both of parent and offspring for the regaining of 

 the latter's lost position, each and all proved futile and unavailing. I looked on with 

 a degree of pleasurable excitement, mixed with fear and anxiety lest the drama should 

 be incomplete, by the flying away of the mother and the desertion of the child ; but 

 no, Nature's inculcated ways ou these points are perfect aud all-sufficient, as most 

 beautifully this case proves, for although each new proposal seemed to be blasted in 

 the carrying out, at length the intelligent creature, after considering for a moment, 

 flies away, returns with a stout straw in its beak, rests for a few seconds on the edge ; 

 then conceive my delight, when the little nestling, after a chirp or two with its mother, 

 learning no doubt the particulars of the project, climbs to the furthest end of the bar, 

 next the ground, receives the proffered straw in its beak, and is raised, to my breath- 

 less and unspeakable astonishment, to the earth on which its now delighted mother 

 stands. Readers, do you deem me puerile, or unmanly, when I say tears of joy and 

 pleasure escaped me on recognising this act of love, and more than instinct, together 

 with the rapturous delight which beat in the breasts of these two small, happy beings, 



