258 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



hawthorn (see Yarrell, 4th ed. vol. ii. p. 100), and made of small black twigs 

 with a sort of cup in the middle. Our butler discovered the nest accidentally 

 by finding two young nestliugs below the tree on the ground. He put them 

 in a small wire-cage, and tied it half-way up against the trunk. He has 

 since seen the old birds come and feed the caged young ones. The latter 

 are almost fully fledged, and have the black and white wing-feathers 

 very strongly marked. Their large beaks are still (June 13th) quite soft. 

 They sit solemnly side by side on the perch in the cage, and look very 

 funny with small tufts of down sprouting from among the head feathers. 

 They allow visitors to approach quite closely without moving, or appearing in 

 the least alarmed. I see Yarrell (I. c.) states that the Hawfinch has increased 

 and spread enormously of late years, and that the discovery of its nest in 

 Lincolnshire "is probably only a matter of time." It has been sought for 

 here for many years, but never until now with success. There are every 

 summer several pairs of Hawfinches about the garden, feeding on the peas. 

 In the autumns of 1879 and 1880 I often saw these birds feeding on the yew 

 berries and pecking about on the gravel beneath the yew tree in a garden 

 on the banks of the Trent. — Mrs. Anderson (Lea Hall, Gainsborough, 

 Lincolnshire). 



Song of the Icterine Warbler. — Like Mr. Benson, I think the song 

 of Hypolais icterina is one of the finest we can hear, and I cannot under- 

 stand the late Mr. Seebohm affirming that it is " immeasurably inferior" to 

 that of the Nightingale. The song certainly "does not fill the ear" like 

 that of the last-mentioned bird, and Mr. Seebohm here expresses precisely 

 the feeliug I have experienced while listening, though I have not had the 

 good fortune to hear both species singing at the same time. Personally 

 I do not think the two songs can rightly be compared ; each is original, 

 and possesses perhaps more points of difference than of resemblance to the 

 other. Mr. Aplin is doubtless correct in surmising that birds " vary in 

 the quality and manner of delivery of their songs in different localities." 

 The author of ' A Year with the Birds' (3rd ed. p. 258) has stated that he 

 found in 1886 the Yellowhammers in South Dorset " singing in a different 

 manner from" those in Oxfordshire, " though it would be almost impossible 

 to describe the difference ; " and the same author also mentions that he 

 has noticed the same in the Chaffinch, but in this case the localities were 

 more widely separated. — W. Ruskin Butterfield (10, Stanhope Place, 

 St. Leonards-on-Sea). 



Rooks Nesting in Laurels and Holly. — Being desirous of procuring 

 a few varieties of the eggs of the Rook, Mr. Thomas Parkin and I on 

 April 11th drove over to Beaufort, the seat of Sir Archibald Lamb, Bart., 

 through whose kindness our desire was not only gratified, but we were 

 enabled to learn many interesting particulars of the fine old Rookery in the 



