Birds. 3657 



points in it which require comment, to prevent any misconception of 

 those points. These are, first, the beak, the boundary-line between 

 which and the chin is not sufficiently clear, and the small pouch with 

 which the lower mandible is furnished being almost imperceptible : 

 and, secondly, the feet, wherein all four toes are united together by 

 membranes, the hind toe articulated on the inner surface of the tarsus. 

 It is necessary to remark upon this, to avoid giving a decidedly erro- 

 neous impression of the bird, it being a very distinctive and important 

 feature, peculiar, not only to the genus Plotus, but to the whole fami- 

 ly of Pelecanidae to which Plotus belongs. With these exceptions, 

 the engraving is a very faithful representation of the bird killed in 

 Dorsetshire. 



Alfred Charles Smith. 



Old Park, Devizes, 

 October 16, 1852. 



Curious Localities for the Nest of the Spotted Flycatcher, (Muscicapa grisola). — 

 In the summer of 1850, a pair of spotted flycatchers built their nest between the up- 

 right and cross pieces of quartering that formed part of the frame-work of the colossal 

 picture of " Napoleon crossing the Alps," at the Koyal Surrey Zoological Gardens. 

 The nest was wedged in between the wood-work and the canvas of the picture, the 

 cross piece of wood forming a foundation or basis for the nest. This was situated at 

 fifty feet from the ground, and was a very shallow fabric, composed of small roots, spi- 

 ders' web, and by far the greater portion of it of pieces of string, with a little tow and 

 fine hay for a lining, being chiefly materials which the birds had picked up from the 

 sweepings of the garden. The nest was just above the highest platform that was built 

 behind the picture, the frame-work of which formed the most lofty peak of the moun- 

 tain scenery, and amidst the din, roar, and blaze of numerous Congreve rockets, sky- 

 rockets and maroons, with frequent thick showers of falling fire, the sudden glare of 

 red and other coloured lights, with their suffocating smoke, and the continual passing 

 and repassing of several men, almost touching the nest. Yet such was the maternal 

 affection of the female, that she was not to be scared from her nest and eggs by any of 

 these untoward circumstances, which occurred for four or five nights in each week ; 

 but sat on, Phcenix-like, an unconcerned and unmoved spectator of the pyrotechnic 

 display, safely hatching and rearing four young flycatchers. On the 27th of June I 

 went to the top of the platform, to see how the young birds were getting on : three of 

 them had already left the nest, and the remaining bird, when I approached, darted off, 

 but for about a minute hung suspended by the foot, having got entangled in some of 

 the string or tow of which the nest was composed. On my attempting to extricate it, 

 the bird gave a sudden jerk, disentangled its foot, and partly flew partly tumbled into 

 the thick shrubs below, at the back of the elephant-house, and I saw no more of any 

 of the young brood. I took the nest, which contained one addled egg, and have it by 

 me at present. In rather less than four weeks the same pair of birds had built a se- 

 cond nest, and hatched four more young ones, which were fledged and nearly ready to 

 X. 2 Y 



