8630 Birds. 



Fascination of Birds by Light. — I have just been reading your very interesting 

 chapter on " Fascination," in the * Romance of Natural History,' and venture to bring 

 before you an instance of the effect of a light, at night, on birds, which afforded me 

 what at the time I considered as fine a night's sport as any schoolboy could wish for. 

 In 1851 my father was living at Rainthorpe Hall, a well-known old house in Norfolk, 

 not fur from Long Stratton. One dark evening I went out with a bull's-eye lantern 

 into some rambling sheds at the back of the place, and without making any noise took 

 up my position in the corner of one of them, with my face to the wall, and the lantern 

 placed so that a bright disk of light shone on the boards opposite me. The servant, 

 an old soldier, Poyntz by name, under whose directions I acted, then began to shout 

 and beat among the rafters at the far end of the shed with a long pole. We knew 

 that the thatch was a favourite roosting-plac a for sparrows, and soon we heard them 

 stirring above. He began to increase his efforts, and in a minute or two a frightened 

 bird fluttered over my shoulder, and stopped flapping against the glass of the lantern. 

 Then came another and another. I had brought a cage or basket (I forget which) 

 with me to receive my game, but they came so quickly and so many at a time that I 

 threw it away, and, holding the light between my knees, began with both hands to 

 collect the sparrows which were crowding round, and allowed me to catch them with- 

 out the slightest attempt to get out of the way. Both the side-pockets of my great 

 coat, which for want of better accommodation I converted into temporary prisons, 

 were soon filled, and still the birds were coming ; so I took the pole, and resigned the 

 lantern to the servant. I forget how many we caught in the one shed, but my pockets 

 were bulged out with the poor little half-smothered creatures, and my companion had 

 a very considerable show by the time we had finished. I should not have thought of 

 troubling you with this accouut of what is, I believe, a well-known plan of bird- 

 catching, were it not that since then I have several times repeated the experiment 

 without success, although apparently under circumstances equally favourable. I 

 remember once returning from a signally unsuccessful attempt to catch cray-fish in a 

 little stream between Bex and Aigle, in the Valley of the Rhone: I was assured by a 

 Swiss that if I bad gone with a torch by night, instead of by day, I might have taken 

 them in quantities, as they would always collect to a light. I returned to England too 

 soon to prove the truth of his account. — T. Digby Pigot ; Primer Wood House, 

 Watford, Herts, May 5, 1863. — Addressed to and kindly communicated by Mr. Gosse. 



On the Nidification of Small Birds. — Waterton, in one of his Essays, speaks 

 about small birds building their nests and rearing their young in contiguity ; but I 

 apprehend that this is not a very common occurrence. With the exception of those of 

 the Hirundines, I have seldom found the nests of small birds very close together. 

 Last year 1 observed a wren and a robin building close to each other, in fact the nests 

 touched, in a thorn-hedge that grew against a wall. The wren, however, deserted its 

 nest before completion, disliking either my inquisitiveness or the proximity of its 

 neighbour the robin. The latter went on and reared its young. The wren, it is well 

 known, is an exceedingly jealous and wary builder ; while the blue tit, on the other 

 hand, is one of. the most fearless, being, in short, the very type of persistent immova- 

 bility when sitting. Last year I found a blue tit's nest with nine eggs, in a hole in 

 the rotten bole of a plum tree ; and, being anxious to secure an egg or two, I sawed 

 two cuts down longitudinally, covering the eggs with dust and bits of wood ; yet the 

 bird went on with incubation after I had taken three eggs a'nd completely trans- 

 formed the site. Before commencing she would not come out when I rapped the 



