Birds. 1065 



from age, for Mr. Yarrell's specimen, the beak of which I have figured, is unquestion- 

 ably a much younger bird than the caryoeatactes of Mr. Gurney ; but the elongated 

 upper mandible of the latter bird may, I think, be referrible to such a cause, the more 

 so, that in several younger birds of the same variety which I have examined, this pe- 

 culiarity is much less perfectly developed : and the form and greater size of the marks 

 on the tail of the same bird appear, as in the case of the male nightjar, to be very pro- 

 bable indications of sex. In conclusion, it is to be hoped that from the greater facili- 

 ties possessed by continental naturalists of investigating this subject, we shall, before 

 long see some more satisfactory explanation of the distinctions of the varieties of the 

 nutcracker, founded on actual observation of their habits and internal anatomy. — W. 

 R. Fisher ; Great Yarmouth, July, 1845. 



Siskins breeding in confinement. One of the females of two pairs of siskins which 

 had been given to me having unfortunately died, early in 1844, I placed the remain- 

 ing female and a male apparently of the same age, in a large oblong wire cage with 

 materials suitable for the construction of a nest, which, however, they made no at- 

 tempt to form. Having this year turned out the male, and substituted an older bird, 

 the pair, about the middle of May, showed evident signs of an inclination to breed. I 

 then put up two forked sticks at the one end of the cage, on one of which I placed a 

 nest of the red-backed shrike, and on the other one of the reed-warbler; the bottom 

 of that end of the cage which contained the nests being covered with soft green moss. 

 The female almost immediately pulled down the nests, and scattered the materials 

 about the bottom of the cage ; but she soon left them, and began her nest on the moss 

 near the corner of the cage, which she drew about her, turning herself frequently 

 round, the latter action being accompanied by a slight motion of the wings. The 

 nest was completed in about a fortnight, and was very neat and substantial. It was 

 composed of moss, mixed with some of the materials of the other nests, and a little 

 cotton wool, and was principally the work of the female. The first egg was laid on 

 the 6th of June, and by the 12th six were deposited. The colour of the egg is bluish 

 white, spotted at the larger end with pale rust colour : the weight 23 grains. My ob- 

 ject being to obtain the eggs for my collection, I removed them as soon as the number 

 was completed, and am consequently unable to give any information as to the time of 

 incubation, &c. — John Smith ,• Great Yarmouth, June 17, 1845. 



Xote on the occurrence of a Thrush new to Britain, in Ireland, in the year 1838. — 

 Pycuonotus chrysorrhaeus, (Swainson). — At the meeting of the British Association 

 held at Cork in 1843, I exhibited at the Natural History Section an example of this 

 African species sent for inspection from the collection of native birds, or those killed 

 in Ireland, belonging to Dr. Burkitt of Waterford. The following particulars respect- 

 ing the bird, though mentioned at the meeting, have not been published. Dr. Burkitt 

 " purchased it from a country lad who brought it into Waterford in January, 1838, 

 with a number of blackbirds [Turdus Merula~\ and snipes, and who thought it was a 

 hen blackbird : he shot it at Mount Beresford, three and a half miles from Waterford." 

 There can therefore be no doubt of the specimen having been killed in this country. — 

 W. Thompson, in Taylor's Annals, June, 1845. 



Anecdote of a Lark's Nest. A lark's nest was discovered in a field in which some 

 cows being tethered had eaten the pasture close to it, but had left a tuft around it, in 

 which the birds remained unharmed and unconcerned. — John Fremlyn Strcatfeild ; 

 Chart's Edge, Westerham, July 9, 1845. 



