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NOTES AND QUERIES. 



AVES. 

 Bird Notes from Bury St. Edmunds, — The Tawny Owls returned 

 to our church-tower this spring for the tenth successive year, but the 

 nest was spoiled in a gale at the end of March. Some rubbish was 

 blown into the nest, breaking one of the two eggs, and the birds 

 deserted. But the pair which always breed in our own grounds were 

 more successful. Four eggs were laid in a nest-box, all of which 

 were hatched. One Owlet died in the nest when nearly full-grown, 

 but the others got away safely, and we hear them every night. The 

 hen-bird was very tame when sitting, and would allow us to put a 

 ladder up and look at her without moving. All mice caught in the 

 house were her perquisites, and on one of my visits I dropped three 

 mice in succession into her box, but she took no notice. In the way 

 of food I found in the box a very good specimen of Mus flavicoUis 

 and the remains of a Missel-Thrush. A Stock-Dove laid two eggs 

 in the same place in the church-tower which the Owl bad occupied, 

 ''ut forsook them. In our nest-boxes we have had the Great Tit, 

 Blue-Tit, Coal-Tit, Tree- Sparrow, and Starling. I have not done 

 much nest-hunting this year, but have found three Cuckoos' eggs, 

 which were certainly laid by three different birds. Two were in 

 'ledge- Sparrows' nests, one of which w^as exactly like atypical egg of 

 he Whitothroat, and the third in a Eeed- Warbler's nest. This was 

 one of the reddish-brown " zoned " type, which one could almost 

 match with some eggs of the Tree-Pipit. My own belief (for what it 

 is worth) is that the "assimilation" of the Cuckoo's egg to that of 

 the foster-parents is entirely accidental, and that there are many 

 " Cuckoo clutches " in collections to which the egg of the Cuckoo 

 aoes not really belong. Quite by accident one day I produced a 

 most accurate imitation of the "water-bubbling" cry of the hen 

 Cuckoo, when filling an ordinary medicine-bottle from a pail of water. 

 The resemblance was most striking, but repeated etforts failed to get 

 quite such a good effect again. Cuckoos have been more abundant this 

 year than we ever remember ; Swallows and Martins perhaps rather 

 above the average, but most of the other summer migrants rather 

 below it. For the first time in my life this year I have seen a Black- 

 bird's nest with six large young ones, and of seven clutches of 

 Yellow Bunting I have found two were " fives," which in our district 

 Zool. ith ser., vol XX., July, 1916. y 



