Birds. 3503 



rest in Natural-History matters. The meetings are to be held every alternate Thurs- 

 day evening, at the Lecture Hall, Greenwich, and the subscription has been fixed at 

 half a guinea a year, in order to bring it within the means of the many. 



Occurrence of various Birds at Ross, Dumbartonshire. — I send a few notices of the 

 occurrence of birds, some of which may perhaps be interesting. At the end of April, 

 1848, I shot a female of the shoveller, and found the nest, containing twelve eggs ; 

 nine of them were put under a common hen, and the ducklings came out in three 

 weeks, but although every attention was paid to them, they died in a short time. In 

 April, 1849, I killed a fine male of the black-tailed godwit, in full breeding plumage, 

 the only instance of its occurrence in this district. The storm and fork-tailed petrels 

 have been found dead or in a dying state; and the spotted crake is occasionally killed. 

 On the 12th of last September I shot a female of the pintail, the only time it has been 

 found here to my knowledge ; but what I mention it for is to ask whether it is not 

 early for that species to make its appearance ? There were about a dozen, apparently 

 of the same kind, along with it. And to conclude, a cream-coloured starling had been 

 seen in this neighbourhood for some time, until it was shot about the end of Septem- 

 ber. — George H. Leith ; Ross, Dumbartonshire. 



Nest and Eggs of the Black Redstart, (Phcenicura Tithys). — On Saturday, May 8, 

 two sons of Mr. Fowke, Hagley Farm, while birds'-nesting at Rongdon, near here, 

 found in a heap of thorns lying near the hedge, a nest, which they brought to me. It 

 was about a yard from the ground, the outside composed of straw or dried grass and 

 moss, then moss and wool, finer towards the inside; lining there was none, unless one 

 stray feather and about half a dozen black horse-hairs can be so termed. The eggs, 

 four in number, were of a beautiful white with a shade of pink, much larger than those 

 of the hedge Accentor, when blown they were exquisitely white. I shall be happy to 

 submit the nest and one or more of the eggs to the examination of more competent 

 judges than myself. The outside of the nest has unfortunately been removed. If not 

 the eggs of the black redstart, what are they ? — R. W. Haivkins ; Rugely, Stafford- 

 shire, May 18, 1852. 



Singularly situated Nest of the Ox-eyed Tit, (Parus major). — On the 29th of April 

 last a servant of Mr. Parke's, on leaving work, placed a cup out of which he had been 

 drinking in a hole in the garden-wall. The next day, on taking down the cup, he 

 found that a bird had commenced building in it. On the 6th of May, or just one 

 week after, he took the old bird on the nest, which then contained eleven eggs. The 

 nest and seven of the eggs came into my possession ; the latter are larger than usual, 

 and thinner in the shell, and the markings or blotches, rather than spots, very pale. 

 The nest presented nothing particular, either in materials or construction. The bird 

 must have laid more than one egg per day. I had the other day an instance of the 

 ox-eyed tit building in a hedge -bank. — Id. 



Note on the Nest of the Marsh Tit. — A pair of marsh tits made their nest this 

 spring in a rat's hole, about sixteen inches from the opening of the hole, which was in 

 a lawn, closely mown and sloping a little to the south. The cole tit has been previ- 

 ously observed to nest in such a situation, but, as far as I know, the marsh tit has not. 

 —J. H. Gurney ; Easton, May 19, 1852. 



Note on the Little Bittern. — A little bittern was killed on the 17th instant at 

 Somerton in this county. It was a young male, but had very nearly completed the 



